As one might imagine, the coronavirus has made it very difficult for many people to stick to their diet-and-exercise routines. After all, staying inside your home for weeks in a row is hardly an ideal setup to improve your fitness levels. Still, now is actually a great time to sit down and review your current exercise efforts to see what’s working and what isn’t. To help you get started, today we’ll list five key factors that could be inhibiting your progress. Check them out here:
Lack of Support
It’s very difficult to accomplish a goal like losing weight without the help and support of others. In fact, individuals who work out in a group tend to perform better than their peers who exercise alone. Unfortunately, you may not be able to meet up with groups to exercise at the moment. Still, you can have virtual workout sessions with friends, family members, and personal trainers from your own living room if you so choose. Finding just one fellow workout partner can greatly enhance your chances of success.
Physical Injuries
There’s a big difference between “feeling the burn” during a vigorous workout and sustaining an injury. Though some might try to soldier on despite physical pain, doing so is inadvisable. Even relatively minor conditions –– like bunions –– can worse over time and negatively affect your ability to exercise. (For more information about treating bunions, check out this page of before-and-after bunion surgery photos.)
Boredom
Developing a fitness routine can have many benefits, and it can help people stick to a program that generates results. On the other hand, if you become bored with your regimen, you could become complacent. And if that happens, it’s unlikely that you’ll perform at your best possible levels. Consider switching up your workout routine if you’ve had the same one for a while. Focusing on cardio, for instance, could liven things up significantly.
Poor Diet
Making poor dietary choices can undermine all of your efforts at the gym (or wherever you work out). The fact remains that what you eat will have a big effect on your fitness levels. So if you’re not seeing the results you want, your diet could be to blame.
Unclear Goals
The more clearly you define your fitness goals, the better chance you have at reaching them. Whether you’re training for a marathon or you just want to lose five pounds, set a clear objective (or objectives) before you begin a fitness program. This will give you something to aspire toward and keep you properly motivated.