How To Maintain Fitness // My Workout Routine

Hello everyone,

Sometimes, it can be hard to motivate yourself to workout. I have been in the situation where I could either sit in my pajamas in bed or get some exercise, and I have chosen to stay in bed. I do enjoy exercising, because I love the rushed feeling you get when you finish. You feel as if you could do anything and be productive, and you feel super healthy. 

I try and do some exercise 2-3 times a week (not including my dance classes). You don't have to do heaps of hardcore toning exercises, it can literally just be walking for 30 minutes of walking on a treadmill. I thought I would show you guys my workout routine. 

**My workouts aren't always exactly this, but most of the times it is this or very similar**

1. Warm Up

To warm up, I like to do 10 star jumps, 10 high knees running and 10 but-kicks facing one wall, then the next wall, then the third wall, fourth wall and the first wall again. This is just a quick and efficient way to get warm. 

2. Strengthening Exercises

In a regular workout, not a long one, I focus mainly on abs and arms. For my abs I tend to do 25 crunches, which are like sit-ups but you only go half way up, 25 sit-ups and I sit in a V-sit for 20 seconds. For my arms, I just do 15 push-ups - pretty self explanatory. To finish, I just do lunges for 1 minute. 

3. Stretch

At first, I just do small stretches. I stretch my hamstrings by touching my toes, and I stretch my sides by standing with my legs apart and reaching over my head and bending sideways. 

For some more advanced stretching, I just do the splits. I do hip flexer on both legs and then I stand with one leg about a metre in front of the other and reach for my front leg. Then I just sit in over splits for 30 seconds each and go into the splits. (For the record, I'm not down in the splits on my left leg yet - it's very frustrating.) For my middle splits, I lie on the floor with my but touching the wall and my legs on the wall straight up. Then I open my legs (lets all pretend that doesn't sound weird) and let gravity push my legs closer into the middle splits. I like to stay there for one whole song, because as weird as it seems, I find this stretch relaxing.

I personally do not do anything like jogging or running, simply because I do improve my endurance at dance, because I am working hard for a long time. If you add in running to your workout routine, I suggest doing it in between your warm up and strengthening exercises. 

Also, I strongly suggest exercising while listening to music. i have a workout playlist on my phone, full of upbeat songs that make you want to dance. 

When I workout, I generally wear plain black 3/4 leggings, a singlet top and I wear sneakers sometimes but I take them off to stretch. 

Bye for now,

Spring Baby aka Jess

♥