"I Can"

Never tell yourself you can't do something, try it first.

Today I trained my mom and my two aunts. Now all three of these lovely women are over 40, yet they all proved that age doesn't matter by kicking butt in an extremely hard, high intensity circuit that I put them through. Naturally, at first they were apprehensive about doing some of the moves because they were out of their comfort zone. However, instead of just saying,"I can't do that exercise," they all gave it a try, and after the second time going through the circuit, they were already improving on their form and coordination. These exercises aren't easy, but they are different, making them really enjoyable. Going through the circuit three times took them a total of 17 minutes to do, and all three were exhausted by the end. One of my aunts runs three miles a day, and the other bikes over 20 miles regularly, yet they both really struggled in doing these exercises because they are total body workouts, that require coordination, balance, core strength, and endurance. So, despite the fact that this circuit was half of the time of their usual work outs, they found it to be even more challenging. 

I wanted to tell you about training them because it just proves that it doesn't matter what age or fitness level you are, you can really do anything you commit to. If you immediately tell yourself, "I can't do this," then you're right, you won't be able to. Instead, give it a try and push yourself to do something outside of your comfort zone, because once you get the hang of it you'll feel a greater sense of accomplishment then you do finishing a workout that you are comfortable with. 

Below I posted some pictures of exercises that I think are great for people to try and work into their weekly exercise routine. They are so simple and effective yet many people try to avoid them. Push ups, squats, and step ups. Try to work on these simple moves, even if you can only do 10 in a row and have to start on your knees for the push ups, you'll never improve if you don't start somewhere. 

Normal push ups and more challenging push ups (this way you can't say they get boring).

Squats jumps holding weight out in front (you don't have to use the extra weight), normal squats with weight on back, step ups with sandbag on shoulder.

(And so I dedicate this post to my mom and my aunts for kicking some major butt today!)