Quick Tip Tuesday!

Today's quick tip has more to do with listening to your body than a specific move to add into your day.

It's really important to not over do it when you're working out. Whether you're new to working out or an old pro, it's always important to know your body and listen to what it's telling you!

If you're doing an exercise video or working out with someone at the gym, it can feel like you need to keep up with everyone. It's extremely important for you to not get injured trying to push yourself to the limit. Injuries can happen easily when you're moving too fast for your fitness level and not doing the exercises properly. So take your time, learn the moves and then progress to doing it faster when your body is comfortable with the moves.

Another reason that listening to your body is so important is so that your don't over do it and decide it's too hard. This is why many beginners quit; they workout one day extremely hard and push themselves to what they feel like they should be able to do and then the next day they are too sore to do anything and fall back into lazy habits. You need to know the difference between what you think you should be able to do and what you can do right now. What you think you should be able to do should be your goal and you should progress slowly towards it so that you don't kill yourself. Killing yourself in a workout only makes you hate working out. Taking your time and progressing at your own pace helps to alleviate some of the workout soreness and pain you'll get so that you can keep going.

Now, this is not to say that you should be really easy on yourself and have lazy workouts every day because that will only accomplish the same result of falling back into lazy habits because you don't see changes in your body. It takes time to know your limits so be patient and feel what your body is telling you. If you get sharp pains in your knees or ankles, take it easy on them and do your leg moves slowly to get your muscles warmed up and then you can work into doing it faster once you've built up those muscles. If you feel your abs on fire, keep going! Don't stop when your muscles are sore, stop when you're in real physical pain or when you feel your body giving out. There is no shame is taking it slow at first but make sure you're not just feeling lazy!