The psychological benefits of working out regularly

First thing's first, it's been a long while... due to me keeping up to date with my coursework. But with that just said, I thought I'll share a personal insight with you with what I've been keeping myself occupied with these past 6 weeks. Which is planning and physically doing a fitness circuit. 

Why should I talk about my fitness circuit experience?

1. There is psychology involved.
2. You might seem curious about my progress.
3. It may inspire some of you to do the same.

How long have I been doing my circuit for?

I have started from the 18/1/21 and finished on the 5/3/21. Which lasted for 6 weeks. (As this was a 6 week training programme)

What did I have to do?

I had to plan out my own range of exercises from arm, leg, core and cardio on my exel diary. (Also including warm up and cool down) There was additional notes which had to be made to my diary, consisting of sets, reps, recovery and how did I do with the exercises?

In relations to physically doing the circuit, I had to film myself doing these exercises, by using a flat surface to set my phone up on, put a '10 second timer' on my camera so that I get a head-start when doing the workouts. (Yes, I had to take pictures for evidence)

Finally, I had to stopwatch myself doing the WHOLE circuit, which provided time evidence.

What were the psychological factors I encountered throughout my programme?

Even though it seemed like a walk in the park during my first session, I started to feel 'exhaustion' around half way through. This was because I haven't done a 9-exercise circuit in a long while, which explains why my body wasn't adjusting to this 'intensity' feeling just yet... I still had a long way to go... (I had to do 3 sessions a week)

During the 2nd & 3rd sessions, I realized that I had to mentally prepare my mind and body for the upcoming struggles of my 6 weeks worth of fitness, as this whole programme lasts for a long time.

Throughout the 2nd week, I just took every planned exercise in stride, as I knew I was still 'starting small'  to working my way higher and higher. Which all seemed fine. However, come the 3rd week, I was experiencing some 'mental doubts' which kept convincing me that I was never going to fully complete my current exercise, let alone the entire session. This is when my positivness kicked in and said: "You have to keep pushing yourself, just keep focused and work through the difficult process" This is the kind of inner message which really helps me to focus on achieving something.

By the 4th week, I was still learning to adapt to the going getting tough, as the process began to get harder. Plus, now that I was easily managing to do a certain number of reps - without breaking sweat, I wanted to increase them up by 5 more reps, to set a higher challenge for my current physical and mental strength.

The 5th & 6th week, was progressed with ensuring my mind to keep focused on the tougher workouts ahead, now that my newly improved muscular endurance had finally accomplished with the small steps. I kept on saying to myself: "Just keep going, pain is all part of the working out process" Fun fact for you guys: The more pain you feel when working yourself out, the stronger you will become. This is both physically and mentally.

At the end of every session, I always get this relived feeling that I've managed to complete the whole thing, as well as every single exercise. All thanks to my inner mentality for helping me to thrive in these workouts, by telling me to keep focused and the beneficial hard working abs I shall be eventually rewarded with, whilst working hard!

Were there any changes to my body throughout?

Not much, but I was apparently told by my mum that I lost weight. (I don't know exactly how much

though)                                                     

*These pictures were taken on my first day - 18/1/21 to my last day - 5/1/21. This is to show evidence of the difference 6 weeks has. Like I said, not much other than the slight weight loss, but I noticed my thighs got narrower*

 

Small conclusion: Working out is good for you, as it helps you to feel more powerful.

Thank you very much for taking your time to read through. It seems like my long disappearance wasn't a waste of time after all!😂 

Please do feel free to let me know about a similar working out process which you've experienced.

I'll try to post sooner, if I can.