Facing a fitness rut isn’t out of the norm. Especially if you are faced with multiple tasks and high demands that come from both your personal and professional life. Ruts happen in all areas of life and come about in different life seasons. To break a rut you must be willing to be completely honest yourself and find out if the rut is physical, mental or technical.
A physical rut can be due to over training, injury or fatigue. A mental rut is merely a loss of motivation and technical rut may be from a workout plateau that isn’t giving you the results it did in the past.
Whether it is physical, mental and/or technical use these helpful tips to get out of your rut:
1. Get out of Your Comfort Zone
Often times settling into comfort is what is halting our growth both physically and mentally. When we make an effort to try something new we reap the benefits of many opportunities that include the possibility of enjoying something new, a creation of a new hobby, personal growth, increased courage and deflecting mundane routines that spawns in boredom. If you are a traditional gym rat who’s routine entails jumping from machine to machine then try a group class, maybe a yoga studio or even a martial arts academy.
2. Boost Your Confidence with Retail Therapy
What does shopping have to do with a fitness rut? Well, when you look good you feel good. Adding in some retail therapy will amp up your motivation whether it be buying a new outfit, workout journal, shoes or fun accessory.
3. Set New Goals
Don’t get stuck with a one-track mind that entails one-track goals. If you keep revisiting the same old goal then you aren’t reaching your goals! Don’t let this discourage you just revise your goals as much as needed. Sometimes the one thing needed to accomplish one goal is to step back and refocus your attention on a new goal. Maybe that new goal is something you need to accomplish or learn from to make that past goal come to life.
4. Log Progress
Seeing progress is what makes humans happy. It’s what fuels us to keep going through mental, physical and technical ruts. Fitness is a journey not a destination so it is important to document your progress. Document your weight loss, your increase in strength, anything that entails how your body and mind are changing and progressing.
Write down both positive and negative thoughts. Don’t be discouraged if you have negative mental notes. Writing helps clear the mind and make sense of things. You can clear these thoughts through your own form of mental venting. Which brings us to the next tip of rewriting your story.
5. Rewrite Your Story
Ok, so you have a log of your progress some positive and some negative. It is now time to rewrite your story by reflecting on those negative notes and rewriting what you will do to change for the positive. Rewriting your story keeps you accountable and truthful to yourself. It gives you something to work for and helps clear your subconscious mind that may be limiting your true potential.
6. Don’t Wait- Just Begin
When you find yourself waiting chances are you are resisting. Rarely is there a perfect time if you are busybody. Telling yourself you will start next week or in a month is a form of resisting change that will inevitably keep you in the rut. A good way to avoid this mental sabotage is to let go of thought and lead with intuitive action. Just go, don’t think about the process just think about showing up.
7. Ask for Help
Allow your stubbornness to work for you not against you. Asking for help doesn’t mean you can’t do it on your own. Sometimes getting another person’s opinion or guidance will open up a new train of thought or perspective that you didn’t realize. This will help alter your approach and make way for progress.
8. Simplify
Along with finding a perfect time comes finding a perfect plan. Too often trying to change a fitness regimen leads to analysis paralysis. There is an oversaturation of health and fitness topics and experts out there. There are no secret training regimens or secret diet teas that will make you reach your goals. Some may help supplement and give you a boost or direction but the most important thing to reaching goals and getting out of fitness ruts is action. So just show up and get to work.
9. Be Honest with Yourself
Acknowledge when you are in a rut because awareness is what creates change. Know the type of rut is it physical, mental and/or technical. That way you can strategize appropriately.
10. Be Your Own Motivation
This is often times the reason of the rut and the hardest part of the journey. However, if you want to truly make a change you must be your own accountability and motivation. Yes, we all are bound to have moments and seasons of weakness. During these times is when asking for help and leaning on your support groups is necessary but you must always realize that lasting change is determined by your own willingness to change and to progress.
