Go from stressed to strong with Laurie A. Watkins

Laurie Watkins is an accomplished speaker, coach, fitness enthusiast, and author of the new book Go From Stressed To Strong.

As a busy professional, Laurie found herself needing to make a change in her life to focus on her health and fitness. She found that building routines worked for her as a means of regaining control. In her book, she describes 20 keys to building a routine. Some of these important keys include:

1. Start an exercise routine first thing in the morning. Stay consistent and find 20 to 30 minutes per day to workout.
2. Keep your workout fresh. If you’re not excited, you won’t want to do it.
3. Set your intentions for the day.
4. Take time for self-care.
5. Review highlights of the day before going to sleep and maintain a gratitude list.
6. Remain motivated and repeat.

Make your routine a priority, but allow for some flexibility. If you don’t make yourself a priority, no one else will. Do more today than you were doing yesterday. Just start somewhere.

Laurie also talks about treating your body like a bank account when it comes to clean and dirty food. She uses the analogy of eating clean foods; doing so is like depositing into your body’s bank account. When you eat enough clean food, you can afford a withdrawal from the bank account to eat the foods you want to indulge in every now and then.

Laurie shares seven additional tips for working out, including:

1. Work out efficiently
2. Sign up for competitions as motivation
3. Make a schedule and commit to it.
4. Satisfy your own likes and dislikes
5. Start with one thing.
6. If you don’t measure it, it doesn’t exist.
7. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Visit http://www.laurieawatkins.com to read a chapter called, “Get Out of Bed and Fall Into a Routine,” from her book for free.

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11 best fitness tips

In this episode, I wanted to share my best fitness tips.  Each of these fitness tips build on each other.  You really need to keep each of these in your programming to ensure you're getting the most out of your fitness program.

My best fitness tips

1. Warm up
This has to be everyone's #1 fitness tip.  Like rubber, your muscles and connective tissue get stiff when they are cold.  It is important for you to do a proper warm up to avoid injury.  A warm up consists of slow and controlled movement to get the blood flowing through your body.  Only after you've warmed up should you stretch or exercise.
2. Have purpose
Each time you go to “work out” you should know why you're there. I see so many people come into the gym and wander from place to place with no clear agenda.  I'm not saying they're wasting their time, but they certainly are not getting the most out of those sessions.
3. Focus
Once you're in the gym, focus on why you're there.  The only reason for you to have your phone out is to skip a song on your playlist or record your effort on a fitness app.  Yes, you are on a rest, but without focus you're likely resting too long.  See warm up above.
4. Use good form
This is another key fitness tip.  Injuries will keep you from meeting your fitness goals.  Just as a good warm up is important for injury prevention, you should use good form.  I'd encourage you to listen to the episode with David Knox, author of Body School.  If you don't know good form, ask a trainer.  I'm even willing to help, just ask.
5. Have consistency
Consistency is key to reaching your goals.  Our bodies adapt to the exercise when we work through a challenge, feed, rest cycle.  Taking too many days off will stall your progress.
6. Push
Using the same weight each time you work out will help you retain the strength you have, but you won't be getting any other benefit from it.  When you exercise, push yourself.  As I said above, you have to challenge, feed and rest to get results.
7. Rest
Another big part of the adaptation cycle, rest is imperative.  This includes rest between sets, which should align with your purpose (shorter rests for endurance/mass and longer rests for strength).  It also includes the rest between workouts.  Don't think you can work the same muscles every day and see improvement.  You have to allow the muscle to rebuild, which can take up to 72 hours.
8. Nutrition
Your muscle requires protein for rebuilding and some glycogen for fuel.  Making sure you're getting enough food is important.  If you're working while you're on a calorie restricted diet, you might find you don't have the energy to push.  As a result, you're holding yourself back from seeing good results.
9. Hydrate
Hydration is key.  You should make sure you're fully hydrated before you hit the gym.  I like to take a sip of water between each set.  This typically has me walking more during my workout and keeps me hydrated.  And I'm not on my phone.
10. Reevaluate
From time to time, you'll need to step back and see how you're progressing.  This reevalution will help you avoid plateaus.
11. Educate yourself
Take the time to educate yourself.  This goes with form, fuel, exercises, and reps/sets.  You need to figure out what works for you.

I hope you enjoyed these fitness tips.  Do you have any fitness tips you'd like to add to the list?  If so, please comment below…

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