Growing up in a conservative community is a challenging experience for the modern woman. When I was younger the more restrictive my circumstance became, greater was the effort I used to resist and break free… Nothing has changed in that department.
This is an important quality to have – the ability to resist the negativity, which threatens to suffocate and stunt your personal development and growth. It takes guts to step out of the norm that you have known all your life. Those you love will reject you. You will be judged and very often you will be alone. This is not a bad thing.
Getting to know your self requires time alone. Building your conviction requires that you be judged by others. Nurturing new relationships means ending some old ones. Above all this is the belief that is built in yourself, which you will never realise if you resist the urge to be better.
Even though I was fairly athletic and mentally focused at school, adulthood had turned me into a soft, sensitive and emotionally gooey woman (I’m still a little emotionally gooey to be honest). I began to notice how my life was beginning to follow the same pattern of many other women in my community – find a husband, get married, have children, (lose identity and get fat)… This is the stage I was at when I began to resist the norm.
I felt so compelled to seek another way of living – there had to be another way. And so there was. Joining the fitness movement was the best decision I had ever made for myself.
Resistance training is a standard factor in building your body. It can be defined as the use of an opposing force when exercising your muscles. Like running through water – which is very difficult and painfully slow. Traditionally it is known as ‘Weight training’. With the advent of so many other pieces of fitness equipment, a change in the title made sense – another example of ‘evolving for the better’.
Resistance training is a super important component in building and maintaining muscle but I have found that the greatest benefit lies in building mental endurance – but we’ll get to that another time.
Building and maintaining your muscles is proven to decrease your chances of getting osteoporosis, improves body shape, increases your muscle strength and power, increases your metabolic rate (helps your body burn fat faster) and is also known to slow down the aging process. I can attest to the latter two points – I am very often mistaken for being at least 15 years younger than my real age – I will forever be doing resistance training – in every form and with many different pieces of equipment.
Some of the equipment that is used for resistance training are:
• Kettle bells
• Dumb bells
• Bar bells
• Resistance bands
• Ropes
• Medicine Balls
• Your own bodyweight
I love using medicine balls – a standard feature in my Saturday morning boot camp. I also focus a lot on bodyweight exercises because it doesn’t cost anything, there isn’t an open time and you can use it anywhere because well, it’s your body.
For someone who has never tried resistance training – the thought can be daunting. So let’s start with 10 of the simplest forms of resistance training exercises that involve your very own body weight and one with a handheld weight.
• Hip Extension (Glute Bridges/Hip Thrusts)
• Split Squat (Stationary Lunge)
• Dumbbell Row
• Goblet Squat
• Bear Crawl
• Plyometric Push-Up
• Stair Climb with Bicep Curl
• Prone Walkout
• Plank
• Plank-to-Push-Up
As you continue down this road of self-exploration, do yourself a favour – do not resist the urge to be greater than the soft gooey someone you are now. There is a statue of warm muscle that is waiting to be etched out.
Join my bootcamp every Saturday, 7am in Randburg. Check out www.fellowshipfitness.co.za for more details. It’s free by the way.