There are so many questions regarding what exercise routine to follow. Do I lift weights? Do I go running? Boxing? Pilates? Yoga? A combination of some or many? There are so many training styles to suit everyone, their needs and goals. That’s the beauty of it, you're sure to find some solution to find what really works best for you. No Instagram guru can find that for you. I understand we can all get caught up with looking a certain way and perceive our training regime to be the road map for achieving our goals, but that’s not the way to look at it. If you exercise accordingly for the toned abs and perfectly defined legs she has - where’s the fun it that? What if you hate doing crunches and running unthinkable kilometres instead of doing what you really love, Pilates and light weightlifting? Society has conditioned us to believe that there’s only one training program we must follow in order to obtain the “body of our dreams” and that the, “body of our dreams” translates to one specific image: Toned, but not muscular. Tall, but under 5”10. Slim, but not sickly. Abs. but definitely not a ripped six pack. Well news flash: you cannot own your body and there’s a massive piece of the puzzle society has left absent. Consistency and self love.

Self love:

Self love and consistency comes into the picture because doing what you love, because it feels good is an act of self love. Is the only way you can remain consistent - the denominator to living in your best body. It doesn't matter if you're weight lifting, it doesn't matter if you’re cycling, consistently doing something that gives you joy and proper balanced nourishment will create the body of your dreams over time. We need to stop chasing an image and start respecting the beautiful and unique vessel we’ve been given to live in by treating it well and intuitively. You’re so lucky to have the beautiful body you have, love it and use it. Appreciate your strong legs for allowing you to jump nice and high and endure heavy weights instead of shaming them for not being 3 times longer, 3 times slimmer and whimsical. Love your beautiful body and appreciate all the other beautiful body shapes.

Rest:

The whole, “no days off” mentality makes me fearful for audiences everywhere. Rest and refueling are the most important factors for us to see and feel the benefits of physical activity. It’s when our bodies literally rebuild and replenish themselves into something stronger and fitter. I guess you could say, it’s when we level up. Exercise, no matter what kind, is a stressor on our bodies. If we never eliminate that stress we’ll just keep chipping away at ourselves instead of chipping away at our goals. We gotta think about the long term people! If you’re sore and/or exhausted one day, you should rest. Exercise isn't going anywhere. If you get bored of one particular training style it’s also totally okay to try something new, that’s part of the fun. Tune into your body and don't let body consciousness tune into you. Trust me, nothing sucks more than forcing yourself through a painful workout you HATE! Exercise should never be forced. Exercise should never be seen as a tool or a punishment rather a celebration of all the amazing things out body allows us to do. Do whatever you love, don't let yourself lose your love for playing Saturday morning netball with your beloved team to isolate yourself in the weight room. Especially because some photo-shopped Instagram model sells the squat rack as the only way to grow muscular glutes. Here’s to the self love club!