Before I started going to uni, exercise was a huge factor in my life. I worked out at least 5-6 times a week and thrived off it, but with uni comes sacrifices. Adjusting to the workload and the demands that were apparent made it difficult for me to try and balance my life accordingly, making time for things that I enjoyed such as working out. Luckily, I have found a routine that works for me that allows me to have time to fit in a sufficient workout, but I do know how difficult it can be to try and find time which is why I want to share with you what I do/did to remain active even when I can’t workout. With that said, this post isn’t just for those who are in university or school. This post is for everyone who lives a busy life too!

Walk

Walking really is a great way to burn a few extra calories and bring that heart rate up if you do a good amount of distance. Being a student we are basically stuck to our chairs at home or the seats in lecture halls, so I would highly recommend getting up and walking when you have a moment, even if it means walking to class rather than driving! Not only will it help in getting those limbs moving and circulation going, it also helps with your mental health. I find that being stuck inside the whole day really makes me go a bit crazy and often leaves me feeling overwhelmed, so going for a walk outside, getting some fresh air and taking in the surroundings is just as important to me along with getting a little sweat in!

Make the time

As a full time student, I know your time is limited and you may be shouting at me through your device saying “BUT I HAVE NO TIME” and although that may seem like a valid argument, it’s not. There is always time, you just have to make the time – not find it. If that means you have to wake up an hour earlier to get a 45 minute workout in, then that’s what you have to do. If it means having to sacrifice getting home an hour earlier, then what’s what has to be done. It’s difficult and there will be days where it’s easier to just sleep in or go straight home after a full day of uni but you’ll feel so much more productive once you’ve gone to gym and it’ll set you up on a positive note for the day ahead. I’ve personally never heard someone say they’ve regretted going to the gym even if it was difficult getting there! Always remember that you don’t even have to get yourself to the gym, some of the best workouts I do are home workouts that only take me 20 minutes. It’s important to move your body in any way!

Improvise

If you’re at home and have enough time to fit in a workout but don’t have enough time to get to the gym and back, improvise! Find something heavy, such as a rock and do some weighted squats, lunges – obviously be careful, we don’t want any broken toes in the process but instead of finding excuses, find ways to make it easier for yourself to get a workout in. Another thing I like to do is use dish clothes as gliders for my ab workouts. Simply place them on the tiles, making sure there is nothing in the way and do some mountain climbers, ab skaters etc. Simple yet effective and that’s what we go for when our time is limited as a student!

Becoming a HIIT FIT Stellies coach [Find out more about that here] has been one of the highlights of my year so far. I’ve learned and grown so much in such a short amount of time that I wanted to share some of the things I’ve learned and come across with you!

Stay soft on the knees.

It is important always be conscious about how you land when you are doing a squat jump, tuck jump or any other type of explosive movement. You want to aim for and focus on executing a soft landing. This is because the harder you land, the more pressure you put on your knees and this type of shock cannot be absorbed accordingly to protect your joints. If you aren’t aware of what you are doing or how it can damage your joints, it can result in injury in which prevention is always better then cure.

Engage your core when doing a push up.

Push ups are difficult and easy to make errors in, when you are in a push up position whether it’s military style or with the knees bent you want to keep your whole body aligned. The same could be said for a plank – suck your stomach towards your spine, engage and tuck your tailbone in. If you feel your t-shirt slipping up, it generally means your bottom is too high!

If it burns, it means it’s working!

I always say to my girls that as long as they’re moving i’m happy. Don’t be ashamed to step it down a notch and switch to an alternative move, that’s why we have them. Sometimes slower is better and there isn’t much use performing an advanced version of an exercise if you don’t know how to execute the simpler version first. It’s you against you, so work on your weaknesses and you’ll reap the rewards!

Wear the right shoes.

This one may seem a bit absurd but is definitely valid. I injured my knee towards the end of last year because I pushed myself during a high intensity workout, floors were slippery and I had no grip on my shoes so it was basically a disaster waiting to happen. When you need to jump forwards, do sprints or anything that requires you to move to a new space, it’s so important to have shoes that support your ankles and have grip to avoid slipping or tweaking anything. If you don’t have shoes that have the best grip and don’t want to purchase a new pair – you can use a yoga mat as extra prevention from injury!

Ensure good form.

Lastly, remember that when you are doing a high intensity workout, it’s easy to let go of good form and so it is important to be mindful and conscious about the movements while performing them to ensure optimal performance while keeping your muscles and joints protected!

HAPPY MARCH!!

During second year sport science, Fitness is a compulsory sport that we partake in – both theory and practical classes which excites me (as we all know, very well) because of my love for both health and fitness. This subject is currently helping me expand my knowledge on the topic drastically which can help me inform you better regarding my fitness related posts!

With that said, what’s a better way to bless the new month off other than with a good old top 4 favourite booty exercises? I know, I couldn’t think of any either!

Hip thrusts

There are many variations of this exercise to tone it up or down, my favourite at the moment is just adding a resistance band whilst my upper back is on the floor. This exercise is great as an activation exercise to wake up those glutes but also to target those hammy’s, lower back and even your core!

Leg press

This is one of my most beloved exercises to incorporate into my workouts. I’ve been using this for years and years now and still don’t get tired of it! The primary muscle targeted here is your quads but it does still work the overall muscles within the leg. Adding a resistance band is a good progression method to spice things up!

Resistance band clam shells

This is a a newly found fav of mine which is almost always supersetted with the hip thrust. OH. MY. GOSH. Will they make you gasp for air? Probably!! I’ve been incorporating in the beginning of my workouts to really activate the muscles of the targeted area. This is great at targeting those hip abductors and your glute medius!

Barbell Squats

This may seem like an obvious one but I haven’t been able to do these for the past few months due to an injured knee so you bet that i’m going to do these when I can, now that i’ve recovered!! This is a great exercise to target those glutes, hamstrings and your lower back. Just make sure you look up, keep your back straight and that those knees stay in line with your toes. (You can add a resistance band if you want more of a push or add extra weight!)

One thing many people forget to do during exercising is breathe, Breathing is so important to the execution of an exercise. My brother once told me that ‘your legs know what to do, focus on your breathing’ and after all these years, it’s still something I practice and preach to people who ask for advice or our HIITFIT members.

I am a little obsessed with using a resistance band when training booty, one I would really recommend is the GraceFitUK extra heavy – https://gracefitguide.com/products, but of course choose according to your fitness level and you can increase the difficulty of band when necessary for that extra challenge!

If you enjoy blog posts like that, please leave a comment and I will be happy to do similar one’s!

Disclaimer: The images in this blog post are not my own, I found them on google. Click on the images and you’ll be directed to the page where the images originate from.

Rolling over into the new year has got to be one of my favourite feelings. There is so much hope and opportunity for what’s to come, for what you can create. If things didn’t pan out the previous year, you get another chance to achieve whatever you want!

I don’t know about you but I’m definitely guilty for writing out a whole long list of New Year resolutions and not getting past the first one. When writing out a full list of goals and resolutions, it can seem quite daunting and overwhelming and could quite possibly be why most of them don’t see the light of day. That’s why I want to help you create measurable New Year Resolutions for yourself (and myself, let’s be real!) We all know the aim of these resolutions is to carry them out throughout the year and in turn, hopefully start a new healthier lifestyle for ourselves, here are four simple steps you can follow to guide you into the right path for the New Year!

It starts with you.

No goal will begin or end if you aren’t in it 110%. When creating your resolutions you have to be inspired about it, when you are motivated and excited to start doing something it’s going to be a lot easier to continue them instead of it feeling like a chore. You can take a goal that has been lingering at the back of your mind for months if not years and use that to your advantage – if it has been there and it’s something you still think about then it’s something you need to go and grab (sounds like something I say to myself when I see a cute bag at the shop) and use that motivation. It’ll manifest itself into greater things!

Make sure your goals are realistic and measurable.

This is something I live by, whenever I create goals for myself throughout the year I try my utmost best to make sure they are realistically achievable within my specific timeframe. The goals you want to create can be as big or as small as you want them to be, just make sure that they aren’t so overwhelming that you don’t want to try at all! (I’ve been there all too many times). I like to create a main goal for myself and then break it up into smaller segments, I find this helps not only to make things seem less cluttered but also helps me stay accountable to my goals.

Find an accountability partner, whatever the goal.

There are going to be many moments throughout that you are going to feel uninspired and unmotivated, as though you’re getting nowhere so you may as well quit – don’t worry, that’s normal! That’s why on days where you’re finding it difficult to get yourself out of the house, knowing that someone on the other side is also counting on you to help achieve their goals makes it a lot easier! Plus; once you’re there you’ll be thanking yourself for it. With that said, it’s important to be kind to yourself and remember that slow progress is still progress. Although it sometimes seems easy to lose sight of the bigger picture, every small step counts towards your goals and still makes a difference. Keep going, you got this! You’re capable of great things, believe it.

Start small.

Success doesn’t happen overnight and neither does progress. It’s something you have to work on every day, little by little. Easing yourself into achieving your goals, doing one small change every day and practicing those changes will make the whole process a lot easier and a lot more maintainable for the rest of the year. Eventually it’ll become second nature, just persevere and have patience!

I know this isn’t me telling you exactly how to achieve your goals and make them realistic but if you take your inspirations, follow these steps and trust yourself – I promise you, you’ll reap the rewards you just need to be mindful and also remember that it is a lot easier to write 10 goals down on a piece of paper than go out and make them happen. You’re only human, don’t set yourself up with disappointment, it’s not fair on you!

With that said, I hope that you all have had a Merry Christmas and that you have the best start to the New Year!

I’ve never done a post like this, I thought it would be interesting for someone who is just starting out their fitness journey and isn’t sure how to plan their workout days.

Essentially it is up to you and your body. I usually go by how my body is feeling, if my legs are still sore from the previous leg workout then I wouldn’t necessarily train them again even if it is my next leg day. Listening to your body is crucial when wanting results.

Before my workouts I always like to do a 5-10 minutes slow warm up, whether it be cycling or an incline on the treadmill just to make sure that my body isn’t cold when I start my workout, then once my workout is finished I do a 10 minute cool down stretch. Stretching is so important when workout out so make sure to always integrate it into your sessions (even though it can be a little tedious sometimes)!

On Monday’s I like to focus on my legs. It’s one of my less favoured areas of my body so I usually put more time and effort into planning and doing those then I would my other days. I train legs twice a week and then usually a full body session at the end of the week depending on how my body is feeling, however Ive recently been enjoying taking Saturday’s and Sunday’s off and using them as rest days.

My workout split at the moment looks a little like this:

Monday – Legs

Tuesday – Back and bis

Wednesday – Chest and tris

Thursday – Shoulders

Friday – Legs

Saturday & Sunday -Rest or Full body

I like integrating back and bis together because you’re essentially using your biceps when you are training back. It just so happens to work out that way depending on the exercises being done but I always do exercises during the workout that focuses mainly the specific areas and then I enjoy integrating supersets for both, back and biceps.

Chest and tris are definitely my least favourite thing to train, but I think it’s important to train weekly especially when trying to keep your body in proportion. A lot of girls think that only boys can train chest because they will get “man boobs” but that’s not the case at all. There are actually a few benefits from training chest, such as improving your posture, making your breasts perkier etc. So don’t neglect your pecs, your future self will thank you for it!

I definitely enjoy getting a little shoulder pump in the gym, it’s not my strongest point but it’s something I enjoy working on and challenging myself so I like to focus mainly on shoulders on a thursday.

As for full body, because it’s weekend and usually getting to the gym is a struggle I like to keep it short and simple and high intensity. If I don’t end up getting to the gym, i’ll opt for a run or a walk on the beach.

I’ll do abs at the end of every workout day that isn’t leg day, just because you need to activate you core a lot of the time when you are doing legs and it’s usually a hardcore session I personally don’t see the need for me to do abs as well but I do love doing 10 minute challenges as a burnout!

Depending on the day and time I go to gym, if it’s too busy for me and there aren’t many machines open for a specific workout I want to do – I would just swop days around to make my life a little easier (TIP: This also helps prevent a little bit of gym anxiety!) This workout split has been working for me and my schedule for the past few months, so hopefully it will inspire you to create a schedule that works well for you and your lifestyle.

If you would be curious to see some of my workouts, please let me know in the comments below or send me a dm on instagram – I would be happy to film some clips!

It is no secret to those who know even just a little bit about me that one of the things that help keep me sane is exercise or more specifically, HIIT workouts. One of my best ways to blow off some steam is to smash out a High Intensity Interval Training Workout! So you can understand my excitement when HIIT Fit Stellies contacted me and very generously offered me a month free of charge to try out their classes.

I started going to their HIIT classes 4 weeks ago, I didn’t think I was that unfit until I was pretty much heaving at the end of the first workout (bearing in mind I have been recovering from a chest infection, but I think i’m just saying this to make myself feel better). It was honestly nothing like I had ever done before – I like to think i’m pretty good at creating killer hiit workouts but there was just something about doing a hiit workout with other people and having the coaches constantly motivating you to push harder that made it 100 times more difficult, in the best type of difficult there is.

Before the class begun, I got chatting to one of the members of HIIT fit, she was telling me how she started seeing a difference in her fitness levels and in her body after going to the classes just 3 times in one week! What’s nice about this is that the coaches were not inexperienced, they were extremely friendly and knew exactly what they were saying. One of the greater things I noticed is that they often corrected your form if you were doing it incorrectly and they also give alternative options to an exercise if you’re feeling a little too fatigued or if you have an injury of some sort.

During my first workout, I felt pretty good and fresh in the beginning but as the workout progressed, I became very tired and my body hurt, A LOT! Because this was the first HIIT workout I had done in over a month, I was exhausted when it came to the end. I definitely felt like it was a good kick in the butt and a good wake up call to get my behind back into gear this semester! One thing I really did appreciate was how the coaches explained why we need to do certain exercises in a specific way instead of them just showing us and getting on with it.

Waking up the next day was, let’s just say an easy challenge. When i’m sussing out whether a workout worked for me or didn’t i don’t only go by how sore my body is, i also go by how i feel mentally. Yes, I was stiff from my feet to my shoulders (which is always a good sign of a good workout) I woke up and got up without hesitation, which is a rare for me – usually takes me a few minutes to get up and at it. I’ve always found that a good workout the day before sets me up for a good day the next day!

As the weeks progressed I found that I was starting to get a lot fitter doing these workouts, I noticed I was doing more reps and had more endurance for those last few seconds of the exercise – don’t get me wrong, I was definitely still struggling but I could see results even after two weeks which is almost always the aim, to progress!

HIIT Fit is an amazing way to do a good workout in a short amount of time, their memberships are crazy good so if you are in stellenbosch and are wanting to try it out – all of the information is on their instagram or you can just dm them, @hiitfit.stellies

Some things to take note when you do try it out; I made the mistake of not taking a towel to my first class so when we did exercises on the floor my little knees got a bit sore and I ended up using my jersey. So make a mental reminder that water and a sweat towel are essential and some of the floors are wooden and get polished so make sure you wear shoes that have grips or else you’ll find your lower back will start to pain because it’s slippery! Lastly, push yourself. If it burns, it means it’s working!

The HIIT Fit workouts didn’t only push me mentally but also physically. I learned some pretty cool new exercises, realised I embarrassingly have no coordination whatsoever and that you can get a sufficient amount of exercise in 30-35 minutes! I’ve absolutely loved every minute with the HIIT Fit fam and I know you will too! 

I just want to say a little thank you to HIIT Fit Stellies for allowing me to come into their space and experience the magic they project and offer the beautiful women in and around Stellenbosch! 

Disclaimer: HIIT FIT Stellies did offer me a month free trial with them and asked me to write about my experience. I want to make it clear that I would not promote or encourage something I do not believe in but with my love for health and fitness, I felt right at home with the HIIT FIT fam and believe you will too!