How you approach fitness depends a lot about how you’re feeling. If you’re feeling harried and hassled and your mind is not at rest, chances are that you won’t be able to perform as well as you’d like when you’re working out. Whether you’re trying to get in one final workout for the year before New Year’s Eve, or if you’re feeling pressed for time with too much to do, it’s fairly easy to just let things slide (and feel guilty later.
Well, fear not, because we have all felt this way, and at times like this, I just gravitate towards the most basic, and purest, forms of exercise. Which are bodyweight exercises. Whether it is a HIIT session, or just a normal full body workout, doing something simple always does the trick for me. Who knows, maybe it will work for you too. With this in mind, here are a couple of great workouts to get you over the hump.
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When in doubt, stretch: I can’t say this enough: we just don’t give as much importance to stretching as much as we should. Keeping our bodies supple and mobile is probably the most important aspect of overall fitness. Everything else, including strength training, builds on this basic thing. This excellent Breathe and Flow recovery stretching routine is a great one to do. It’s a follow-along, where you’re taken through a range of yoga stretches lasting just about 30 minutes. I find this very useful not just as an exercise but also as a means to calm my mind. And the trick to that is to focus intently on your breathing.
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Bodyweight strength training: Sometimes you just want to hit all the important muscle groups in a quick 30 minute session and you don’t want to have to worry about weights. Jordan Yeoh’s bodyweight training is perfect for this. His exercises target your chest, arm and abdominal muscles and you will get a good, quick burn. If you workout with weights, like I do, think of this as a quick top-up workout. You’ll feel great at the end of it!
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