Hello and welcome! Today we’re talking about the 10 minute rule! If you have ever had a day where you're just not feeling like working out, this one's for you! We will break down how to deal with those days when your body just wants to stay on the couch!
I've had various people, clients, and participants that take my class, ask: Are you a robot? You love to workout everyday and I'm sure you always eat clean (again, whatever ‘eating clean’ means?). But the answer is no! I have my days, I go through my cycles where I’m tired, I’m crabby and I’m less motivated than the previous day. It happens to all of us! We'll get into the 10-minute rule here in a second, but I have a side note: when you are imagining yourself working out, you should schedule it within your calendar. Whether on Monday you lay everything out for the week or you go day by day. Regardless, you should treat your workout like a business meeting. This is something that you can't go against. You can't cancel. This is set in stone. So with that, if you're feeling unmotivated for whatever reason that day, pick two things that will get you motivated. And know this: motivation will not always be there. So put on your favorite music that pumps you up, or for me I start chewing gum, because I always chew gum when I work out. When I put some gum in my mouth and I turn on my music, it's a switch in my body and it's letting me know, okay… I know that I'm going to start preparing myself mentally and physically to begin working out. Whether you lay out your shoes, your exercise clothes, whether you write that goal down on a sticky note and you put it on the fridge or your mirror, you need to find a trigger point, or points, that will assist you into that exercise routine and habit.
Now, let's say that you're having a bad day, and you have that business meeting, or that workout meeting, that you just can't miss… give yourself 10 minutes! Set the timer and just start doing something! I always repeat three exercises when I do my 10 minute rule. It includes frankenstein's, body weight squats and then some variation of a plank. Then I keep repeating those three exercises, 12 reps each, until my 10 minutes are done. Now, 9 times out of 10 I feel really really good after that 10 minutes and I want to keep going! The bonus side of that is I just got a 10 minute warm-up in, so now I'm prepped, I'm warmed up! I'm ready to go! There's been days where you get to 8 minutes and you're struggling. Finally you hit your 10 minutes and you're thinking that is all the fuel and energy my body has for that day, and that is okay! You gave yourself permission for 10 minutes to focus on you, to try and get in that exercise session, and if you're not feeling it after your 10 minutes, well, 10 minutes is better than 0 minutes. That 10 minutes will get you to your long-term goal a lot quicker than if you just sat on the couch because you were feeling tired, sore or hungry.
Anything that you want to add into that, Aline; do you have any triggers that help you get prepped for your workouts? For me, I've learned that the best time for me personally to work out is really early in the morning. I have two young kids, so the best that works for me is to get it done before they wake up. When they wake up I am finishing my workout. It took a while to get into that habit! I wake up at 5: 15 in the morning and I go to my workout room. Again, it took a while to get into the habit, but for me triggers are obviously my alarm clock; I don’t naturally get up that early, so my clothes are set out the night before. I am privileged to have a space in my basement, I have a cold room that houses my home gym and that space is always ready for me, which is great. Before I had this gym space, I would work out in my living room and the night before I would set equipment out, kind of turning it into a gym-ish. Again, I set my clothes out the night before, that’s something I've always done. This sounds ridiculous, but one of my excuses was ‘Oh, if I get up now and open the drawer, I’m going to wake up my husband. I can’t get my workout clothes, so therefore I can’t workout!’
Yes, I love it, setting your clothes out is great. When I worked in the gym, I would tell my clients that may have had that issue in the morning to pack their bag the night before. Have your meals ready for you in your fridge, have your silverware out so you don't forget your meals as you head out the door. But literally, have everything ready and prepped, so all you need to do is head out the door and go. And honestly, this can be the hardest part. I think whoever you are, whether you've just started your journey or you have been exercising for years, just getting started is hands down the hardest part. Your first foot into the door of a gym is hard, your first motion or exercise at home when you're getting into your session is hard. But once you get going, it gets easier. Exercise to me is medicine, and I'm a firm believer in it for so many reasons in life. Let’s say you're in a bad mood and then you go and you complete a good workout; you feel better. You probably have solved a lot of the world's issues as you typically have some good conversations with yourself! Overall, exercise is so good for your mood. And even if you're still in a bad mood for whatever reason, and I’ve experienced this, after my workout I've at least calmed myself down and revisited the situation instead of reacting to it.
I don't know how much were we're allowed to name things, but I think it's fine, so the movie legally blonde is a hilarious movie, and one of the quotes that I love is she's talking about this trial and she looks at everybody and in that classic Reese Witherspoon (she's amazing, by the way!), says: ‘You know, exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people don't kill their husbands, they just don’t!’ I remember her a lot when I’m working out, I'm thinking happy people don't lose their shit with their family, happy people don't just do crazy things! So you know I'm doing it for the people I love, you know I'm working out so that it gives me endorphins. I'm a happy person and then I'll be even happier later because on the days that I don't want to work out, I always remember her, her voice in my head.
Dig a little deeper in the 10-minute rule, it’s amazing and I recommend it! Giving yourself 10 minutes, even if it’s 10 minutes three times a week, that can be your starting point to begin creating an exercise habit and routine. Please, just start out there, and that minutes can be anything that you enjoy or what you are feeling at the moment. And that is called fartlek training; where you don't really have a series of training that you're specifically following, it's more or less maintenance workouts. That's usually how I treat the 10-minute rule, too; how am I feeling today? do i need to just kill myself for 10 minutes and get in a nice cardio blast or am i feeling more of yoga and pilates. Listen to your body, but take care of your body. Give yourself at least 10 minutes.
Now, let’s chat about somebody that has no idea what to do. Some of our listeners already have an exercise program, or have been working out for a while, but what about the person who is completely new to this, new to exercise?
I’d recommend telling yourself to do 10 minutes a day, or start out 3 days per week, to get into the workout habit. There is a crazy amount of free resources out there, but there’s also a lot of fitness influencers that do weird moves on social media (which by the way don’t really work!). So again, where does this person start? I’ll do a name drop here, you can start at The Core! We have a great exercise library, such as quick 10 minute workouts and exercise demonstrations. But you definitely want to make sure that if you are going online, to make sure that it’s an accredited resource. It’s an accredited person or institute that you’ll be performing these exercises with. If you are just starting out, one of the harder things is creating and maintaining that long term habit of exercising a minimum of three days a week. You can start out by walking, or biking, hiking; just do something that you know you are good at and that you can maintain. If you know you like to walk, walk! Walking is underrated, for the longest time walking was considered something that only ‘old’ people did, or people that aren’t fit do. But walking is very healthy, it’s very beneficial and it's very safe. So yes, walking is a great place to start, as it’s also one of the most natural movements that a human can make, so I imagine you’re good at it! My main advice to you is to keep breathing, never hold your breath when you’re working out, so choose something that works for you, then if in 2 - 4 weeks you’ve maintained that minimum of 3 days a week of walking, then it’s time for you to start looking elsewhere, or to expand and progress. I love strength training, especially aging females. None of us are getting any younger and we want to avoid osteoporosis, there are so many other health benefits for us with strength training, too. But again, find somebody that’s accredited to instruct you on how to properly strength train, or get yourself a personal trainer. Personal trainers love their clients; I had a client for up to seven years, I think was my longest relationship. You can get a personal trainer for 6 months, or a year, just to help you establish proper technique and form, proper breathing and muscle patterns. You want to make sure that you are engaging the correct muscles so you know where to be targeting while performing specific exercises to get the most benefit. So many people, especially in a class setting, and I love my fitness classes, but when you have a class of 15 people, a lot of them are just going through the motions. They’re there for 45 minutes then on their way. But you really need to create a routine where you’re firing and targeting the correct areas to receive that full benefit, so find a personal trainer, someone online that’s accredited. Those would be the first two steps that I would start out with. Now, that might take you anywhere from 4 - 6 weeks to establish those two steps, so any questions feel free to reach out to us as we can get you started with a few exercise tips and demonstrations!
