Within minutes of me starting a cardio routine, I can't wait for it to end.
I know it's the wrong attitude to have when I'm starting a heart-pumping calorie-burning exercise. But I have it often.
And then I truck through, and work as hard as I can for weeks and weeks, and then something just happens and I just don't have it in me anymore.
Burn outs happen to most of us, especially when we over stress our bodies. According to this article, the burnouts happen in four stages.
http://health.msn.com/fitness/womens-fitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100254304
The first stage, or as they call it "the honeymoon" is when we have the drive that gets us going to the gym and working hard. From there, we burn out a little and get into our regular routine.
The next burnout stage, or as they call it, "disenchantment" comes when try as we may, we just don't see the results we were hoping for. We're disappointed in what we see in the mirror because we know how hard we worked, and it simply doesn't show.
The third stage of burnout is "stalling" when we come up with any excuse not to exercise. I often times say "I'm too tired," (I really am most times).
And the fourth and final stage is "frustration and surrender" when all the previous stages start to really weigh in on us and it stops us from wanting to work out.
There are a few things we can do to ease these burnout stages and get ourselves back on the right tracks. If we have the motivation in the beginning to work out, we must remind ourselves every day how great it is that we have it and to keep it up. When we're feeling like we aren't seeing the progress we would have liked, we must remind ourselves about the motivation we have to keep going.
When we're coming up with excuses, we need to realize that that's what they are, excuses, and STOP making them.
And when we get frustrated, we need to turn to our Buddies for support.
posted @ Saturday, April 03, 2010 7:57 PM