What's the FIRST thing to do for a confidence boost, without sapping more of your precious time? I'm a personal trainer who's worked with performers, directors, fitness instructors, teachers, and business owners. I wish more people knew that functional fitness is the key to body confidence.
I didn't step into a gym setting "seriously" until college as a form of bonding with my roommate (she loved going). I spiraled into four years of using the gym as a combination of sanity- saving and punishment for whatever was about to happen or had happened in my day.
I didn't get "smart" about cross- training as a dancer and athlete until I endured my first workplace injury, about seven whole years after I first started pretending like I knew what I was doing in the gym in the first place.
I finally bit the bullet, once I knew what I was doing, and qualified as a personal trainer four years into my career as a dance captain and aerialist (a total of eight years after I first stepped foot into the gym, for those of you keeping up with the math).
Here's the thing: I literally wasted my time for SEVEN whole years of going to the gym. I was training wrong, I was over- exercising, and I was wearing myself down instead of building myself up.
For almost an entire decade of my life- I was using exercise as an attempt to change my body's shape, to gain pride in the calories I burned, and to be the skinniest in the room. And my confidence in myself was the absolute lowest it's ever been, to date.
If you've been going to the gym, whether consistently or on- and- off, for years in the hopes of finally getting the body you want, I'm about to share the first thing to do for a confidence boost, so you can stop wasting time like I did.
I genuinely wish that more people knew that incorporating a functional fitness routine is the key to your body confidence. Why?
Take the workouts that are trending on social media, for example. You're either getting videos our carousels of fitness fanatics who show off their washboard abs or voluminous derrière with the caption "spicy leg session" or "killer core workout." Already, your subconscious is bought into the hope of looking just like that composed physique and so you save the workout.
You might do the workout once, or twice, over a three week timeframe and hope to see change. Then one day something clicks; you realize you've been trying to do this workout because you just want a body like that influencer, and you're not getting the results you had hoped for so you spiral into self- sabotage, self- criticism, and self- loathing for the lack of discipline and dedication that you clearly yearn for and want because it's what's all over your social space at the moment.
You take time off socials. You enjoy going for walks, the occasional fitness class, and doing your own thing at the gym. Then you go back to socials (once you've recovered your dignity and your mental state has stabilized), only to see the same influencer who inspired you in the first place doing a totally different workout, with the same promise as before. You save the workout, and the hamster wheel continues.
Here's how to stop the self- sabotage cycle when it comes to fitness.
You need to stop focusing on how workouts will make your body look, because the way your body looks changes as you transition through life.
Focus instead on how fitness can make your body feel.
This is where a functional approach to your fitness training can supercharge you through all stages of life- and you don't have to start a functional fitness programme before a certain age! My Mum is over the age of 50, and has just started incorporating functional strength training a few times per week because she wants to age healthfully (and keep up with her grand-dogs). She's incorporating weight- bearing exercises such as squats, lunges, rows, and presses. She's utilizing foam rolling, mobility drills, and core exercises. She walks with a friend for fun, fresh air, and a bit of a gossip-y catch up.
She's noticed her back pain has eased off; she's felt a big improvement in how tight her hips and legs are after twelve hours on her feet at work (healthcare workers, unite); she's standing in a more aligned way that better supports even weight distribution which is better for her posture and feet overall; she feels stronger, and feels like her body is moving better.
I've noticed that the comments she makes about her body's appearance have quietened down to a dull whisper, when it was once a loud command.
She's got a fitness routine that makes her feel better, move better, and physically look better, because she approaches it from a functional perspective.
It's the fitness routine that 19-year-old me needed from the start, and it's the fitness routine that 32-year-old me has finally found. After a few years of ups and downs, body love and body hate, injury and athletic performance.
It's the first thing to do when you're looking for a confidence boost. So now you know, and now you can do something about it.
Want help getting started? Check out FUNCTION: the four month fitness membership, here.
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