Being motivated to go to the gym is not an easy task. The majority of people who decide to go to the gym end up going for one or maybe two days if they are really motivated. The really busy times at the gym are January and February as this is when the new year resolutions are thriving. Generally these people filter out until only a few remain. Getting motivated is hard, especially alone. It is good to have a workout buddy so you can hold each other accountable, and it’s also good to have a set schedule for you to go. You don’t want to overload yourself though when starting off, maybe stick to three days a week and slowly increase.

I started going to the gym last summer when planet fitness offered a teen free summer challenge. This program allowed anyone from ages 13-18 to go to the gym for free in hopes that you will want to continue once this program is over. It worked. Before this program I would have never thought about actually going to a gym, but my friends got the free membership and encouraged me to do the same. I am very thankful for this as I would never have gone by myself. We had a group at first for a couple weeks but eventually most stopped coming and it was just me and my current gym buddy. We first got a membership at Charter Fitness in Wheaten as it had more free weights than Planet Fitness. We went here for a while, doing the same workout every time we went as we were still fairly new to the whole gym experience. Soon however that gym went out of business and we found ourselves back at the legendary Planet Fitness.

As for a routine we went from doing any day we could both make it and doing the same full body workout every time, to now where we go the same days every week and do different workouts each day. Our split is commonly known as the push pull legs split. It is great for focusing on smaller muscle groups and hitting it hard while the other groups rest. It is good to do push then take a day off then pull one day and legs the day after. We then leave weekends free to do muscle confusion whenever we are both available to do so.

I have really enjoyed going to the gym as it is great to relieve stress and to push yourself. My gym however closed yesterday which is very disappointing, so I am left trying to not lose progress with at home workouts. These are difficult if you are like me and have no weights at home. Body weight workouts are not ideal but are sufficient for at least maintaining strength. If you are looking for some good body weight workouts I would recommend the app Home Workout. I’m sure there are better one’s out there but I have used this for the past couple days and it seems to be pretty good. Here you can choose different muscle groups to work on as well as being able to choose between three different difficulty levels. It also has a quick program for a full body workout that is only about 15 minutes a day if you just want something shorter.

We are living in a strange time at the moment but it is important to not waste away during this quarantine as difficult as it may be to get motivated. So get some music on, water close, and get to working out.