The (Fitness) Value in Doing Less

Do more

No Pain no Gain

No Sweat? You didn’t work hard enough

These are the mantras running through our minds. These are the mantras that lead to injury and burn out–they dispirit us on our journey to do something positive for ourselves.

Well, there’s good news! Research is showing equal or more value in relaxing. It doesn’t mean ‘don’t work out’. It means, sleep, stretching, deep breathing, meditation and more have INCREDIBLE value! They can count as part of your weekly wellness efforts.

Sleep is the most obvious way to restore ourselves. So much happens through your sleep cycles–from hormone rebalancing, to cognitive and emotional processing, even muscle repair. If you’re not getting enough sleep, that alone will have detrimental effects on your health. Just to note, the most powerful sleep is from 10PM-2AM.

Any easy way to assess if you’re getting enough sleep? If you fall asleep within 20 minutes of lying down, and wake up without the assist of an alarm–you’re most likely doing fine.

If you have trouble falling asleep, or dread hearing your alarm go off in the AM….experiment with incorporating more rest in your day and more time allotted for sleep at night.

Need an easy way to rest during the day? Click Here for my free Webinar and try the ‘exercise’–it takes just 5 minutes! This type of breath work exercise helps us reside in our parasympathetic nervous system. And your parasympathetic nervous system is our non-stressed state. (*Note, you can reside in a non-stressed state even when stress is happening ;))

Listen, we’re all busy adults with balanced-ish lives. We don’t have much time to workout; many of us have deviated from our goals a bit.

Let’s take the pressure off. Your wellness is not directly correlated to how much time you spend the treadmill!

Try to get (3) 30 minutes of weight training in per week–Need guidance without paying $90/hour? Checkout my online program–it even includes all the equipment needed! Also do 3 easy to moderate cardio sessions/week, and get nourishing rest. (nourishing doesn’t necessarily mean Netflix. Trust me, I just binge watched Narcos Mexico and it was NOT relaxing.)

So, getting back on track, let’s replace those mantras with something a little more in touch with reality:

Less can be more

Work smarter not harder

Progress not Perfection

Live Life Well,

Trainer Jeff