Since lockdown, fitness in the UK peaked as many of us tested the waters trying out different online classes or dusted off the old running trainers and headed out the door for that long overdue run.
However, as the weeks passed, many have stopped and lost their motivation to keep going.
If you’re losing confidence in your ability or have lost the enthusiasm for exercising during these uncertain times then my personal trainer advisors and co-founder and trained chef at FitFoodKitchen have put together their top tips on breaking through the fitness plateau to help you achieve your personal fitness goals in the comfort of your own home.
Stick to a routine
Our mental and physical health is more important now than ever. It’s important whether you are working or not to ensure you have a consistent daily routine.
Aim to go to bed and wake up at the same time – striving for approx 7-9 hours sleep. Avoid over relying on comfort food and use this time to be creative and make nutritious meals.
Try to eat 3 set meals a day and avoids mindless snacking.
Schedule time for your daily exercise and make sure you get outside once a day- get your daily dose of endorphins and make your overall well-being a priority.
Aisling Petticrew-CrossFit Berserk Coach and advisor to FitFoodKitchen
Step in the Right Direction
That train you’re on will keep on going if you don’t jump off, so if you’re still overindulging in Netflix and in your pj’s until 2pm, you still have time to jump off and get fit.
Set a reminder on your phone, tell your family you’re setting yourself this challenge for a month and get out for a walk by 10am every morning.
I guarantee if you do this for 7 days straight, you’ll want to continue for the rest of the month. Moving your body is the simplest form of exercise so utilise what you have.
Cat Jamison, Personal Trainer and advisor to FitFoodKitchen
Control what you can
Set new goals focusing on what you can do. You can’t control how long we will be in lockdown or when gyms will open. A lot of people are letting themselves go, stopping training altogether, not getting enough nutrition, and using the lockdown as an excuse to put their goals to one side.
Start focusing on what you can control.. You can control exercise, nutrition and sleep, and you can set new goals and work on other aspects of health and fitness, and keep progressing forwards.
Peter Davison, Personal Trainer and advisor to FitFoodKitchen
Food, Glorious Food
Now is a better time as any to get your diet right. Eighty per cent of your fitness relies on your diet, so explore your kitchen cupboards or simply go online and search for easy and healthy recipes that you can put together quickly.
If you don’t have an inner chef inside of you then there’s tonnes of health home delivery services created by trained chefs, like FitFoodKitchen, that deliver straight to your door calorie-controlled meals that don’t comprise on your taste buds.
Matthew Roman-Wilkinson, Co-Founder of FitFoodKitchen
No Weights? No Problem
We currently don’t have the luxury of the gym but that doesn’t mean we can’t exercise Learn how to exercise using your body weight and variables to increase the difficulty..
There are endless body weight exercises and variations we can do and a number of ways to make exercise more challenging.
Consider the tempo of the exercise and moving more slowly through the exercise and using pauses at the bottom of the rep or mid rep. For example, holding the bottom position of a squat for 3-5 seconds each rep.
Peter Davison, Personal Trainer and advisor to FitFoodKitchen
Challenge Accepted
Working out alone does not have to be lonely. Open Instagram and you’ll find hundreds, if not thousands of workout challenges you can get involved in.
Nothing gets our juices flowing then beating someone, even if you don’t know them. The internet is littered with ways to get that social interaction, without being near your friends, and work in that great piece of exercise at the same time.
Matthew Roman-Wilkinson, Co-Founder at FitFoodKitchen
Join the Programme
We have entered a period we never seen coming and it may have derailed you or set you off course. However, this is the perfect time to focus on what you can do versus what you can’t.
Make a list of exercises you can do at home, ones you wish you were able to do e.g. Push Ups or run 5/10km and set out making a plan or getting involved in an online program like Berserk Online.
Getting a program is the best way to keep you on track and can open you up to new exercises, new ways of training and most importantly – coaches who know how to help you, a space to record your daily activity and keep you motivated!
Jake Baxter-CrossFit Berserk Coach and advisor to FitFoodKitchen
Progress Over Perfection.
Stop waiting for Monday to come around, any day is a good day to pick up where you left off. And, if you haven’t started yet, stop procrastinating and repeat these words to yourself – you don’t have to be great to start, you just have to start! Strive for progress, not perfection.