I’m just going to dive right into
my guest post by first saying thank you to Mrs. Kim for asking to feature me
and this post on her blog! I’ve always wanted a blog and think it’s the coolest
when people ask me to a guest post, so thank you Kim.
I’ll tell you a little about me. My
name is Bree Bond; I’m a 20 year old from Texas, relocating to California to
pursue my dreams of becoming an actress.
I am a National Academy of Sports Medicine certified personal trainer
and self proclaimed health geek. I just recently received my NASM personal
training certification after starting my fitness journey September 2011 through
the Tone It Up nutrition program (which I HIGHLY recommend). Anyways, when Kim asked me to do a post
I had no idea what I wanted to write about… She asked me about a week after I
had gotten my certification, which was also the exact time where I discovered
an injury in my right hip flexor and lower abdominal muscles. I was in severe pain and I am no baby
when it comes to pain so when it hurt as bad as it did I knew I needed at least
a week of complete bed-rest. *siiiiiiigh* Needless to say I had a lot of time
on my hands…
So here I am sitting down to write
this post-one-week-bed-rest. I went through so many emotions last week while lying
in bed, all day every day. (See,
you use your core for EVERYTHING so it wasn’t an injury I could really just
work around, I knew I needed to seriously let it rest) So, going from working
out every single day (6 days a week) sometimes twice a day to a completely bed
ridden was a hard pill to swallow for me.
I hurt my ankle when I was in 4th grade and ever since I’ve
had muscle imbalances on my right leg, as much as I tried to strengthen my
right leg to match the left I was still left with an overcompensation usage in
the right side of my core to make up for the strength differences. This lead to overload of those muscles,
which lead to inflammation, which led to my body saying, “woah bro, no more…”
Yes, my body talks like a California surfer dude. To avoid making you re-live my experience by describing
every grueling detail, I just want to share with you all what I learned.
I
knew all of these things but I am very
hardheaded and sometimes
think I’m superwoman, this rest
only solidified the knowledge I had and I see now that I needed something like
this to snap me out of my stubbornness.
I
am all about pushing through plateaus, high intensity training, setting goals
and having relentless determination to see them out, however… we are not
indestructible. I am constantly
seeing things on Twitter like “#TeamNoDayzOff” or “#NoExcuses” and the list
goes on and on. People on Instagram constantly making their training seem like
torture because of how exhausted they are. This makes me think, “Isn’t this supposed to IMPROVE our
lives?” Now hear me out, I am a work out fool, it’s one of my passions in life,
I would work out three-four times a day if it wouldn’t eventually kill me, but
that’s just it, my body would absolutely give out. We aren’t made for constant destruction which is exactly
what working out does, it breaks us down so we can rebuild stronger. People ask
me all the time how to push through a plateau. A lot of people will say have a cheat meal, do empty stomach
HIIT cardio blindfolded on one leg while wearing a top hat but you want to know
my new found advice? Oh you’re going to hate it, I know I did but here it is; Give.
Yourself. A. Break. This is a
personal trainer speaking; someone whose income depends on YOU wanting to get
your butt to the gym but still I am telling you, give yourself a break. Take a few days off; throw your body
for a loop without shoving a Big Mac down. Cheat meals only reinforce you old bad habits and aren’t
conducive to fitness goals in my opinion. This brings me to the next thing I
learned; Eating is everything.
You’ve heard “Abs are made in the kitchen” yeah? Well, here I am to
reinforce that idea. I changed
nothing about the way I ate while completely resting, clean eats, 6-7x a day
and I barely lifted a finger. Here
I am a week later to tell you that I did not gain a pound. Yes, some days I
felt bloated. Yes, some days I
retained water and yes, some days I even ate more than I should have. But you know what? I’m unchanged by it!
How great is that?! One of the many benefits of being FIT, you can take time
off, let life hit you and still maintain your fitness progress. Your body is
smart, it knows how to work, and it knows how to adapt. It’s impossible to lose your progress by giving yourself a
break! Am I saying give up? Am I saying go “easy” on yourself? No, push, work,
drive and then rest… J You’ll actually come back completely
restored and ready to work at your full potential.
Today is my second day back to
training and I feel like I am actually making progress again! I am sore! I feel
like I’m actually doing some work while I’m lifting! Before I was pushing
myself to the point of exhaustion, my muscles to the point of severely painful
inflammation and I wasn’t getting anywhere. A rest day wasn’t the answer, a rest period was.
I’ll leave you with these
ideas. Exercise and working out
are two different things. Exercise
is playing with your kids, going on walks, riding your bike anything that gets
your heart pumping a little more than usual. Working out is for muscular endurance/strength. It IS possible to live a HEALTHY
lifestyle, maintain your weight and feel good without working out.
Working out does provide so many health benefits and I highly recommend it
but, I just want you to understand that taking a break from working out and
just living actively for a few days can be extremely beneficial too. You cannot perform HIIT (High Intensity
Interval Training) everyday and not expect some backlash. Space them out; take
into consideration the time, intensity, frequency, type and the enjoyment of
your exercise and workouts.
They’re all dependant of one another. HIIT 2-3x a week is great but mix
it up with some low intensity cardio too, work all your body parts (everything
is connected), throw in core training, foam roll, stretch, rest and repeat.
Rest is just as important as everything else I listed. Be committed to your rest days/periods
as you are to your workouts. Even more so be committed to eating for your
goals. As long as you’re putting
clean foods in your body at all the right levels and not being sedentary, say
hello to improved health levels and fitness maintenance during your rest
periods from working out. Strive
for healthy, set goals and be determined.
You are worth every second of this fight for fitness, but sometimes it’s
okay to put your sword down.
You
can follow me on Twitter; @BondBree and also find me on Instagram
@BondBree! I am always open to
questions and willing to help with what I can! Stay strong and beautiful. Now go workout ;) <3
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