Others are inspired to take up a new activity. For instance, you may decide to take those group golf lessons that you and your friends have been talking about for months. In addition, summer is often the time for family vacations, which may include activities such as hiking or canoeing. All in all, summer is a great time to get outside and be active.
At this point, you may be thinking, “If I’m doing all of these extra activities, then why would I want to go to the gym?” After all, your summer plans include lots of activity – isn’t that enough? While all of these activities are potentially a good way to add to a fit and healthy lifestyle, you need to remember the importance of a well-balanced fitness plan. Strength training, flexibility exercises, and aerobic exercise are all part of a complete fitness plan, and can actually help you be able to do the fun summer activities you want to integrate into your lifestyle.
A good workout plan, such as the one you have at 1-2-3 Fit, includes exercises to improve strength, increase flexibility, and develop cardiovascular fitness. While you may be engaged in more physical activities in the summer and may be tempted to skip your usual workouts for a while, you need to maintain total body fitness. A balanced body fitness program can help you reduce the risk of injury and improve your performance. For instance, if you have decided to learn to play tennis this summer, you may find yourself using different movement patterns than you have performed in other sports or physical activities. If you continue with strength and flexibility training, you have less chance of injury while learning to swing the racket and move on the court. If you are participating in an activity regularly, then total fitness will help you improve more rapidly. But even if you know the benefits of maintaining a total fitness program, you may still find yourself skipping those workouts, so next we will touch on two ways to stay motivated over those summer months.
The first motivational tool is to pull out those goal-setting techniques we discussed with you back in January. For example, you might decide to set a new summer goal of going to the gym twice a week for a complete workout. Perhaps during the colder months you were going more often – it may not be realistic to stick with your “old” plan and still have time for those fun summer activities, as well as your daily routine of work, parenting, and so on. Your new goal may be to go less often, but on those occasions you can stress good technique and a sharp focus.
Our other motivational tool centers on a skill used often in behavior change contexts – reframing. This strategy allows you to take the same situation and cast it in another light so it doesn’t deter your positive behavior. For example, if you find yourself saying something like, “I don’t want to go to the gym when it’s so nice out”, reframe that thought. You might say something like, “yes, it’s beautiful out, but going to the gym for just a short time will give me more energy to play tennis”. The idea is to acknowledge the issue directly, and counter that thought with additional facts. By reminding yourself that the investment in a balanced fitness program is worthwhile, your trip to the gym can be seen as an important part of your summer activities. Next month, we’ll continue on this topic when we discuss self-talk and our reactions to our internal dialogue. Until then, enjoy yourself and get psyched to be active!
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This article was contributed by Diane Whaley and Blake Rushin of the University of Virginia. Copyright 2007.
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