Finding my way through the fitness industry

*I want to preface that I am NOT a licensed dietitian or fitness trainer. I am sharing my personal experiences and what I have researched myself.

Growing up I LOVED playing sports. Throughout the years I played sports like soccer, basketball, softball, to even track and field. I also enjoyed spending time outdoors on four-wheelers, jumping on the trampoline, and tubing at the lake. So it's safe to say that my whole life I have naturally been active.

Though I played sports my whole life, I never really took seriously my physical fitness until 2019 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. During this time I started to workout at my house and just follow whatever fitness influencer I found that had a physique I aspired to have. In my head I believed: "if they look like this, they must know what they are talking about." But as I have gotten older, I've learned that this is not always the case.

Growing up as a young woman, we can easily talk about how many pressures society and social media has pressed on girls. I believe that it is inevitable to avoid these pressures, but what we can do is educate ourselves on what is the truth and what is used for "views."

I cannot deny that I followed the trends of doing only ab workouts for a "snatched" waist, dry-scooping pre-workout, and even ignoring form to lift heavy weight. Through the years I have to give myself grace because I wouldn't be where I am today without the version of me that I was who had to learn the whole process and you need to too! It's not easy understanding knowing what works and doesn't work for your body/goals.

As time has passed, I discovered 4 important things:

• Diet is critical in whatever your goals are!

• Understanding the types of strength training programs

• RESEARCHING (foods/workouts/supplements/etc.)

• Not every person's body is the SAME!

Needless to say, I discovered that when building muscle, creatine, protein intake, and strength training are key to growing muscle. What has worked for me is breaking my days into different muscle groups: back & bi/shoulder & tris/hammy's & glutes/quads (4 rounds of 8-10 reps with 5 exercises). If you struggle to hit your protein goal, supplements like whey protein powders and protein shakes help knock out your goals.

To increase your athletic ability, incorporating strength training and agility workouts helps build speed and muscle memory. I found that using explosive movements during strength training like hex-bar squats--exploding up--and box jumps helped increased my speed and leg strength.

To tone muscle & lose weight, I have started doing HIIT workouts. These are high intensity interval training workouts. My workout program is split into 3 circuits of 3 movements (3/4 rounds). These are body weight workouts and build endurance. I walk on the treadmill for 20-30 minutes on a steady increased incline as well. I also believe that being in a caloric deficit is vital to achieve your goals. I then use MyFitnessPal and put it in from the calculator to track my goals.

This is the caloric deficit calculator I use: https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

While there is so much more to unpack about the fitness industry, I believe that it's important to just focus on what I find to be important. I am not here to judge the fitness industry but merely share my personal experiences. I hope that my experiences help educate others on the fitness industry and encourage you to dominate your goals ♡

To learn more about the diet/ingredients/supplements, I will be sharing a post soon discussing these topics!