There are many aspects to fitness, and mental toughness and physical capabilities both play a role. Could fitness resilience be the key to levelling up your regime?
Resilience: it’s an attribute associated with mental grit, determination, strength in the face of adversity and the ability to bounce back from disappointment. While it’s undoubtedly important to mental wellness, resilience is a term that’s also gaining traction in the workout world.
“Fitness resilience is the key to staying motivated, on track and hitting your workout goals,” explains Ryan Atkin, founder and head coach at Real World Results. “Whether you’re new to fitness or want to change up your routine, you will need to build up resilience to be able to succeed in your journey, as no journey is ever smooth sailing.”
If you’re lacking motivation or simply hitting a plateau, could fitness resilience be just the boost your workout regime needs?
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What is fitness resilience?
Put simply, fitness resilience is your ability to adapt to and grow from the stresses and strains put on your body through training.
“Fitness resilience is about coping with the physical stress from your workouts so you can grow into a robust and all-rounded athlete,” explains coach Farren Morgan. “Maintaining a positive mindset is crucial to achieving this.”
Personal trainer Aimee Pearce agrees that mindset is critical here. “In my opinion, fitness resilience is the knowledge that you are capable of doing hard things but maybe not all of the time,” she explains. “When training for anything, you will have good days and bad days. The important thing is to not let the bad days impact your motivation or training pattern.
“Fitness resilience comes when you have the confidence to adapt to circumstances, acknowledging that you may need to move your body in a different way at different times.”
Why is fitness resilience important?
“Just as resilience is essential in daily life, it’s also key to building fitness and staying motivated,” explains author and leading authority on mental toughness, Penny Mallory. “It’s vital to be able to adapt, recover quickly and bounce back when things don’t go as we had planned or hoped.”
Achieving any kind of training goal, whether it’s couch to 5k or training for a marathon, requires dedication, perseverance and commitment – especially when things just aren’t going your way.
“Fitness resilience is vital for everyone because it can transform every aspect of your life,” agrees Morgan, who specialises in building mental toughness alongside fitness. “You’ll learn countless lessons by mastering it. Perseverance, determination, delayed gratification, commitment and discipline are all essential characteristics required to master fitness resilience and help you achieve any goal you have in life, regardless of whether it’s personal or professional.”
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How can we build fitness resilience?
So, now we know what it is, how can we build our fitness resilience? The good news is that it’s easier than you might think to start working on a resilience mindset.
Be kind to yourself
“If you think negatively about yourself this can impact your fitness regime,” explains Atkin. “Adopting a positive perspective will help you to feel better, have more energy and it means you’re more likely to achieve your goals.Practising self-care and taking some time out to incorporate mindfulness into your life can help to build resilience, encouraging you to focus on the positives rather than the negatives.”
Work on your discipline
While it’s important to listen to your body, make sure you’re not selling yourself short. It’s all too easy to talk yourself out of a workout, but sometimes, you just need to dig deep.
“Your energy will be higher some days than others,” acknowledges Morgan, “but during the days you find your energy lacking, you’ll need to listen to your body and make the right judgment. If your body’s overworked from your training, you may need to rest or carry out light-intensity workouts to maintain your resilience. But if your energy is low from lack of motivation, you must develop your level of discipline and push through your mental barriers to get the work done and maintain your fitness resilience.”
Set realistic goals
“Being realistic about what you want to achieve is key,” advises Atkin, “because when you start seeing results, you’ll be inspired to work out more and as a result stay committed to your training plan. There’s no harm in setting yourself a big goal, but break it down into smaller micro-goals so you can celebrate your achievements and progress often.”
Morgan agrees: “Shifting your mindset will make it easier for you to work toward your bigger goals by tackling the smaller tasks that align with them so you don’t feel overwhelmed and stay motivated long term.”
Don’t wallow
“Resilient people don’t wallow or dwell on failure; they acknowledge the situation, learn lessons from mistakes and move forward,” advises Mallory. “They are mentally tough and they are more likely to thrive. So, if your fitness isn’t quite on track, instead of wallowing in the negative, focus on the mistakes learned and move forward in order to get back on track and improve fitness resilience further.”
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Be prepared to leave your comfort zone
Playing it safe won’t help you to progress. “Champions learn to open their minds to possibilities, managing risk and leveraging it to their advantage,” says Mallory. “By stepping outside your comfort zone there is no loss; you’ll succeed or learn from it, and both are big wins.”
Keep your workout short
If your resilience is wavering, try switching to shorter sessions and slowly build them up.
“A 15-minute HIIT workout is more than enough time to show some real health benefits and get you fitter,” advises Atkin. “This is because during a HIIT workout you push yourself harder than you normally would. HIIT is all about exercising in shorter, sharper bursts which push your body into the higher heart-rate zones quicker than you would do in a normal workout.”
How to maintain fitness resilience
The experts agree that resilience is always a journey, not a destination.
“It’s important to remember that there are lots of things that will impact your training sessions and therefore test your resilience,” says Pearce. “Things like where you are in your menstrual cycle, how hydrated you are and how much sleep you have had the week before the session will all affect your performance, but to maintain fitness resilience you need to focus on consistency with your sessions. Don’t let a bad day impact your mood or future training sessions. Keep going and try again next time.”
Use positive mantras
“Just like training your physique, developing your fitness resilience is a process,” explains Morgan. “In most cases, the biggest obstacle to maintaining fitness resilience long term is the mind. Your inner voice will try to cast doubt on your capabilities and ability to perform, but recognise how you’re thinking in the tough moments and learn to change your thought process. Try saying, ‘This might seem difficult, but I’m certain I can achieve and overcome this obstacle.’”
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