3 Keys to My Over 35 Fitness Routine

As a stay-at-home-mom of four who also homeschools, my alone time and self-care windows often occupy the same, limited, unpredictable time block.  I’m in a season of constantly striving to prioritize fitness and overall wellness when my time and energy are in short supply.  It has at times been far easier than I’d like for me to convince myself that I don’t have time or that I’m too tired to workout.  But like it is often said, nothing forces you to make time for your wellness better than your illness.  After spending the better part of the last two years nursing a spinal injury that could’ve been way less severe and possibly avoided altogether with better attention to physical health, I’ve been much less willing to skip my workouts.  I wanted to find the sweet spot of a routine that is equally sustainable and effective.  In a world where there is no shortage of fitness information - both evidence-based and opinion-forward – it can be overwhelming and discouraging trying to figure out what’s right for you.  I spent several months in physical therapy, and it was a really good jumpstart to some new wellness habits.  What used to be effective for me as a 20 something mom of one really doesn’t have the same impact on me as an over 35 mom of four.  My body is different, my mind is different, my life is different, so naturally my workout routine needs to be different.  Here are the three things that have had the biggest impact on the efficiency of my workouts and overall fitness.

Strength Training
I have really come to appreciate the value of weight training. Whether it’s training with a set of weights or body weight resistance, regularly including it in my workouts has yielded great results. I’ve found that I can elevate my heart rate and get in a good sweat with a properly executed weight session in a fraction of the time that I can with cardio. While cardio and strength training each have their place, recognizing the shift in my body’s need for and response to each method has been a game changer. I’ve been growing, birthing and breastfeeding children for the last eight years. This demanding work coupled with the body’s gradual reduction in muscle mass as you age left me in desperate need of focusing on strength training. I first felt the difference when I was going to physical therapy. Many of the exercises I did helped with rebuilding muscle. The more I strengthened the muscles, the better I felt. I didn’t even notice the physical changes in my muscle definition and tone at first, I just loved the way I felt. Then I started noticing that some of the areas I used to spend so much time trying to target were naturally becoming much more toned. I used to focus so much more on cardio because it seemed like it had to be more effective since it can be more intense. But my experience lately has shown me that isn’t necessarily the case and it really depends on your fitness needs and goals. Right now my priority is building muscle and regularly incorporating weight training into my routine has helped me accomplish that.

Recovery
Since I’ve been working on strengthening my muscles, I’ve learned - painfully - how important giving my muscles a chance to recover is. At first I found myself experiencing so much discomfort and pain the next day after working out that I wouldn’t want to workout again. I started noticing that I felt better based on what I ate afterwards and how well I rested. This got me thinking that I should get more knowledgeable about the type of recovery my body needed. I started focusing on getting a good combination of macronutrients right after working out and also re-evaluating my intake over the course of the day. Since I am still breastfeeding, this is another function that demands quality and proper nutrition from my body. When those needs aren’t met, I feel it. By being diligent about taking in adequate amounts of nutrients throughout the day, I make sure that my body has the fuel it needs to get through my daily routine plus power through my workouts and rebuild my muscles afterwards. It took some trial and error to establish a good baseline and I am constantly paying attention to how my body feels and adjusting as needed. This has certainly been a crucial part of getting more impact from my fitness routine.

Consistency
Finding a way to be consistent with exercising has had the biggest effect on my fitness routine. I started out by committing to a small goal and building on that. I wanted to start with a routine that I could easily stick to. I previously had a pattern of setting really high expectations for my workouts and then getting discouraged when I couldn’t keep up with them because they weren’t realistic to begin with. Then instead of doing a little bit or what I could, I would end up not doing much of anything because it wasn’t what I said I was going to do. Starting small not only helped me build the habit but it also showed me that consistency is just as important as frequency and intensity. I noticed that even though I didn’t feel like I was doing a lot at first, the consistency of what I was doing was very effective. My body responded favorably to routine movement. I noticed tremendous improvement in some of the aches and pains I was experiencing. I was seeing and feeling the results of creating a routine and sticking to it. In addition to the physical benefits, the mental boost of following through on my commitment to myself was more motivation to keep showing up. For me, the hardest part of staying in the habit of working out has always been showing up. So finding a way to stay consistent long enough to see and feel the results I want was a major key to my fitness success.