Phone a friend

There’s nothing worse than a demotivated morning gym session…. alone. You wander aimlessly around the weights area, hop from machine to machine hoping to find your motivation somewhere among the cross trainers but it doesn’t seem to show up. You try a bit of kettlebells then do some abs but really you just can’t seem to find the fun in gym today.

Excuses, excuses: Trust me I know the feeling. Happens all the time. Stop making those lousy excuses, like your too tired…. or it’s been a long day… or you’ll go tomorrow. 

Like your mother would say when you were younger, “you’ll feel better once you get there I promise you” when you’re trying to get out of going to a party or the school dance. (Plus, Mothers are always right, you will feel better once you get there).

What can help to boost your gym time enjoyment? One of your girlfriends I say. So here’s three reasons why you should try training with a friend if you’re not feeling excited to put on your gym clothes and get in the gym.

1.  

      Accountability – If you don’t feel like going one day and end up having a lay in or a chilled evening on the sofa with some ice-cream, your gym partner is there on the other end of your phone to remind you to get back on it and train together soon. You organise a gym date and ’woohoo’ you can’t wriggle your way out of it so easily.

2.   Helping hand – when you’ve got your friend to hold your feet for sit ups or throw the ball or even better count each others reps it just makes life easier and the motivation just seems to flow better you when you making a bit of a laugh out of the pathetic press ups or sweaty brow.

3.   Social time, time goes faster- although the gym is supposed to be the place that you burn off last weekend’s pizza and yesterday’s cheeky chocolate bar, completely in that focused ‘zone’. I find that by chatting whilst exercising the time seems to pass by faster and the calories drop off without you getting terribly bored and frustrated.

4.   Confidence- I sometimes feel more confident when I’m with a friend rather than alone. Especially if you don’t feel super comfortable going to the gym, by going with a friend you can push each other and laugh how silly you both look, red in the face and sweaty, great look!

If they aren’t good enough reason to get one of your friends to start coming with you on a regular basis or sign up to SportsDock then I don’t know what will. Heck I’m even motivating myself to text my friend now.

This month at SportsDock it’s refer a friend month so why not take this opportunity and give a friend a phone.

By Jasmine Wing

Phone a friend this November

There’s nothing worse than a demotivated morning gym session…. alone. You wander aimlessly around the weights area, hop from machine to machine hoping to find your motivation somewhere among the cross trainers but it doesn’t seem to show up. You try a bit of kettlebells then do some abs but really you just can’t seem to find the fun in gym today.

Excuses, excuses: Trust me I know the feeling. Happens all the time. Stop making those lousy excuses, like your too tired…. or it’s been a long day… or you’ll go tomorrow. Like your mother would say when you were younger, “you’ll feel better once you get there I promise you” when you’re trying to get out of going to a party or the school dance. (Plus, Mothers are always right, you will feel better once you get there).

What can help to boost your gym time enjoyment? One of your girlfriends I say. So here’s three reasons why you should try training with a friend if you’re not feeling excited to put on your gym clothes and get in the gym.

1.       Accountability – If you don’t feel like going one day and end up having a lay in or a chilled evening on the sofa with some ice-cream, your gym partner is there on the other end of your phone to remind you to get back on it and train together soon. You organise a gym date and ’woho’ you can’t wriggle your way out of it so easily.

2.       Helping hand – when you’ve got your friend to hold your feet for sit ups or throw the ball or even better count each other reps it just makes life easier and the motivation just seems to flow better you when you making a bit of a laugh out of the pathetic press ups or sweaty brow.

3.       Social time, time goes faster- although the gym is supposed to be the place that you burn off last weekend’s pizza and yesterday’s cheeky chocolate bar, completely in that focused ‘zone’. I find that by chatting whilst exercising the time seems to pass by faster and the calories rack up without you getting terribly bored and frustrated.

4.       Confidence, I sometimes feel more confident when I’m with a friend than alone especially if you don’t feel super comfortable going to the gym then by going with a friend you can push each other and laugh how silly you both look, red in the face and sweaty, great look!

If they aren’t good enough reason to get one of your friends to starting coming with you on a regular basis or sign up to SportsDock I don’t know what it. Heck I’m even motivating myself to text my friend now.This month at SportsDock it’s refer a friend month so why not take this opportunity and give a friend a phone.

By Jasmine Wing

Getting up close and personal

‘My journey’ sounds a bit cheesy right? But realistically it has been a bumpy journey, with SportsDock being a stable base for the ups and downs. I’m now in my final year and there is no way the workload will be stopping my gym attendance. I dread the day that I’m stacked up to my eye balls in work and the gym seems like a distance memory but until then you will catch me there six days a week!!

Training partner:  Before coming to University I battled with my weight. It was my first time away from home and now my eating habits were in my hands.  I was certain that I wanted to grab control of my weight issue and ‘transform’ myself. Luckily my housemate, Sarah, was of the same mind frame and we both set our minds on losing weight. Minus those movie nights with a tub of Ben and Jerry’s between us, oh and the late night chocolate trips to the corner shop. We went to the gym together and helped motivating each other, it was great.

Calorie counting control: Knowing little how to lose weight, I started to count calories and doing excessive amounts of cardio. The whole counting and control of my diet became a bit obsessive, oh and not to mention the cardio overload. I did manage to lose weight but I didn’t feel exactly healthier. I was tired all the time mainly due to not refuelling my body properly. My obsession with eating and going to the gym restricted my social life. Now this may seem a bit extreme and you probably feel as though you’d never become like that. One of the purposes for the women's wellbeing blog was to help raise awareness on subjects that are topical. I feel some women have a blurred vision on such wellbeing issues as calorie counting and weight lifting.

One of the lads: In my second year, my housemate had returned to Australia and I soon found myself among the lads in the gym and ended up training with them, hey it was better than training alone. Although I loved training with the boys in the gym I ended looking like one and my weights to cardio ratio has completely switched. I gained muscle but the weight around my mid drift was staring back at me in the mirror. I was unhappy with the way I looked, a re-occurring theme, when returning home for the summer, I ‘up-ed’ the anti and was determined to lose weight!

A ‘loner’: As my interests shifted towards weight lifting, I realised a real lack of women in the weights area. I started to become more and more curious as to why there wasn’t the same sense of community between the females as there was with the males. So here comes my sob story… the men at SportsDock would greet each other each morning, share fitness tips, chat and they would laugh together in-between sets…. and then there was me. Alone.

It was love at first sight: My adoration for the gym has grown and grown, some say I’m crazy, some say I’m obsessed but most I believe admire my dedication. I may not have the ‘celeb’ body but I’m a lot happier in my own skin than I was and continue to challenge myself from week to week. The love for the gym has helped me love my own body. Being a journalism student I wanted to be able to combine my two passions, health and writing. By creating the blog I was able to reach out to women like me or educate girls so they wouldn’t fall into the same traps as I did.

If you have similar interest or want to become more involved with UEL's women's wellbeing project then email me at jasminenatashawing@gmail.com.