By: Tony Junkin

Last year at this time, I was hitting the gym 5 days a week. 45 minutes of strength training first thing in the morning followed by 30 minutes of cardio in the afternoon. I adhered to this schedule religiously. I ate like a saint and yes, of course it helped me get into shape, but more than anything, do you know what it got me? 

TIRED.

I’m my 20’s, I could do twice that much activity 6 days a week and feel just fine! Now that I’m in my 40’s, it’s a different story and it was a hard truth for me to accept. Not everyone needs to slow down as they get older, but most of us do. This is especially true if you’re dealing with a lot of life stuff, which I was. I got to the point that I absolutely dreaded going to the gym and that was frustrating because for so long, it had made me feel good! That’s when I realized I had to do something to keep myself from completely falling off the fitness wagon. I had to find a way to exercise that worked for me and my schedule and my energy level.

The number one reason people give up on exercising is they feel like they just don’t have the time or energy to do it, but both are there, they haven’t gone away. You just have to figure out a way to do it that works for you.

So I made changes! This was hard because I have OCD and a strict routine is the best way for me to function, but I really had to listen to my body instead of my brain. I cut back to 4 days a week instead of 5 so I exercise Monday and Tuesday then Thursday and Friday and use Wednesday as a rest day. I go to the gym in the morning and do 30 minutes of strength training and 25 minutes of cardio. No more double trips.

I do alternate muscle groups on those days because that works easier for me, but you can do muscles however you want! You will read that it needs to be done this way or that way to be effective, but the truth is that if you’re going to the gym regularly and putting in some work, you are going to get the benefits regardless of whether you follow the plan some guy on TikTok said you need to for success. In fact, ignore TikTok altogether. Please. A solid 90% of the videos I see are the absolute worst advice that nobody should follow.

One of the exercises I do on leg days is Bulgarian Squats. If you google them, you will see that they are very intense, but I do them because they work every muscle in your legs at the same time so it means I need to do less legwork on the whole. Still, there are some days where the thought of doing them makes me absolutely nauseous. I used to force myself through them until one day I finally asked myself why I was forcing myself to do something I didn’t want to with every fiber of my being and you knob what? I really couldn’t come up with an answer that justified that!

Now, when I go to the gym, I generally do the same muscle groups on specific days, but if I’m not feeling those squats, they aren’t happening. That change alone has taken so much pressure of myself and allowed me to enjoy going again. For most of us, there’s no race to achieve a specific level of fitness or no athletic even we are training for, so there’s just no reason to force yourself to do things when you aren’t enjoying them. Go to the gym and do what you want to do that day, not what you feel like you should do. Honestly, if you’re there and you’re putting in a moderate amount of effort, you’re doing more than most people and that’s great! Let that be enough when it needs to be! 

Bottom line: Find what works for you that’s effective and sustainable and go with that. For some of you, that might just be a walk around the block, but that’s better than nothing and more often than not, those who start small and up winning big! If you’re having a day where you just aren’t feeling it, don’t sweat it. As long as you are consistently doing something for 30-45 minutes a day, 4-5 days a week, then you’re so far ahead of most people. It’s absolutely ok to have lazy days and cheat days as long as they aren’t the norm.

And I’ll tell you the best part of all. When I stopped being so hard on myself and strict about my routine, I actually got more results than before. When I stopped forcing myself to do things I just didn’t have the energy for, I actually lost weight and gained muscle significantly faster than I did when I was going through the motions of something I didn’t really feel like doing. I never expected that to happen, but what a good lesson to learn: listen to your body and treat it well and it will do nothing but help you.