This is part four of my series on “my willpower routine”. Please see this post for a greater explanation of the routine.
At 6am on Mondays and Thursdays, you can find me in the living room of my house watching and trying to mirror the actions in a workout video created by “The Dailey Method”.
In a previous attempt at blogging on a consistent basis, I wrote about why I love The Dailey Method. This post explains a little about what The Dailey Method is and how it works. Here is a link to that blog post: http://mfackenthal.blogspot.com/2013/04/yet-another-re-start.html.
At the time of that blog, I was going to The Dailey Method classes. It was a communal activity. That was great and I still highly suggest it.
However, for this routine, I needed something that I could do at home, in only 25 minutes, that wouldn’t have me jumping up and down, shaking the whole house, and waking up all my roommates.
The at home video is the perfect solution. Here are just a few reasons why I am loving this video:
The video is longer than 25 minutes. Therefore, I can vary the routine and work out different muscles by completing different parts of the video.
I don’t need to hear what is being said in the video to understand what I should do. Therefore, I can mute the video and not worry about waking the roommates.
The movements are not cardio based. Again, this means that I shouldn’t wake the roommates with movement that could knock picture frames off the mantle or shake the house. Though my tears at trying to hold certain positions for long periods of time may still wake them.
25 minutes is all I need to feel like I got a great workout. I am always sore later that day, the next day, and the following day. (Hence the reason I work out on Mondays and Thursdays … or at least one of the reasons.)
I like that this form of working out is a solitary activity. I’m not very confident in my figure and, more importantly, I feel like a “weakling” when I do The Dailey Method with a group and I stop doing the movement because I’m fatigued before anyone else in the room. Now, I know that when I’m in a group, no one is judging me. Heck, they’re working so hard and focusing on themselves they don’t have time to think about judging me for stopping. However, that was and is a stumbling block for me and this allows me to remove that stumbling block.
Side note: I have to do my strength building routine in the morning because if and when I do decide to work out in the evenings, I know that I will want to do cardio work. The idea of strength training after a long day at work is enough to keep me at home, but the idea of a cardio workout where I can run on an elliptical and ignore my other frustrations for 30 minutes will get me to a gym. People (and magazines) who are “experts” in the field of weight loss tell me that both cardio and strength training are helpful to those who are trying to lose weight. Some would even say the strength training is more important. Hence the focus on it in my routine.
When do you like to workout? (Mornings, evenings, afternoons, every other day, never?) What type of workout is your favorite? (cardio, cycling class, running by the beach, elliptical, weights, Zumba, window shopping?) Do you like to workout in classes or by yourself? (or a little of both?)