Readers, get ready for more #gymselfies on my Instagram cause I’ve finally started one of the 10 things that I’ve set out to accomplish in 2014 – to start lifting, bro. I know we’re more than halfway over with the year, but this is an exciting update for me. I’ve always known that I needed to change things up when it comes to workouts, but you guys know how much I love spin. The beginning of this year, I was booking back-to-back spin classes and felt like a beast when I powered through them and broke personal records. While spin is a great cardio workout, I’ve long plateaued in terms of any additional fitness gains besides endurance. I wanted to see more physical changes for having worked out 3-4 times a week.
Earlier this year, I started going to Soul Cycle a few times a week which is how I started to add weights back into my training since a class always includes roughy 5 minutes of arm exercises near the end of class. The weights that we used were very light, usually just 2-3 pounds, but after doing this with high reps for a few weeks, I actually started to feel more muscle definition in my arms. This was really surprising to me, and was a clear sign that I needed really needed to start doing weights but had no idea where to start.
I looked at different programs on BodyBuiliding.com but it just seemed really intimidating so I kept putting it off. So, how did I finally break this cycle of all spin and weights intimidation? I joined the #BiteSizedArmy challenge through Instagram!
You see, for the past few months I have continues to follow more people who focused a lot on their fitness. Even though I don’t do yoga often, I loved following FitQueenIrene and Lola_Beth for their beautiful yoga poses. My cousin introduced me to ChaleneJohnson and NatalieJillFit who has the amazing workouts on their Insta accounts – though I have to admit I’ve only watched the workouts and have never done them myself, lol. I love seeing their daily posts about fitness and it keeps me motivated. Soon after my 2.5 week trip to Europe, I happened to stumble upon BiteSizedFitness and saw that she was encouraging people to join her new 12-week fitness program, for free!
While I’ve seen similar programs in the past on BodyBuilding.com, this challenge that was set out by Alyse at BiteSizedArmy was a lot less intimidating because I know that she’s developed for beginners – and mainly for the ladies, though I’m sure guys can use the workout too cause it’s tough! She gives us her support, encouragement and motivation via Instagram, uploads a few YouTube workout videos and she even set up a forum on her awesome site for everyone who’s joined the challenge to interact and help each other through.
Something about knowing that other weight lifting newbies were starting out on this journey with me really gave me the final push that I needed to finally to start this goal I had set up for myself in 2014!
As I write this post, I am getting into the beginning of my 5th week (out of 12) of the challenge – already 1/3 of the way through! While there have been some days that I have skipped during this time (ahem 4th of July long weekend), I am proud to say that that have been able to go to the gym 5x a week most of the time to complete each of the sets. #proudmoment
If there are any of you out there who set out resolutions in 2014 to be more fit (and I know you are out there!!), I challenge you to join us in the BiteSizedArmy and give this 12 week program a try! Go join at BiteSizedArmy.com to get weekly workouts & tips on nutrition (which I haven’t been following personally). Also follow BiteSizedArmy on Instagram – it isn’t too late to get started.
