What It's Like to Work Out 5 Days a Week...For 3 Months

No, I didn't do a Chloe Ting challenge!

After a rolled ankle and inflamed foot tendon from my only spring ultimate frisbee tournament, I had been slacking a ton on working out.

At the end of March, I decided it was time to roll out the yoga mat, bring back my lil 4 lb dumbells from my house, break out the resistance bands, and get started! My first thought was to look at YouTube for some videos I could follow along, and WOW, did I find a lot!

The two YouTubers I have been watching the most when I work out are MadFit and, you guessed it–Chloe Ting! Both of these YouTubers are super motivational, have great music, and fairly intense workouts while still being good for beginners. I got so used to using machines that I was worried about the exercises being too easy, but they both offered some more intense alternatives for a few exercises in each video.

3 weeks ago, I started running before each workout! Admittedly, it was NOT easy in the beginning. I will say I could have made things easier on myself by starting on the track first, but I forgot we had an outdoor one still open and began running again on the sidewalk around campus. I couldn't even run for 2 minutes straight! What changed my motivation and endurance wasn't what you would expect...I'll be honest, TikTok inspired me to keep running 😬 A video came across my feed with a guy who said if you start off with a playlist of 10 songs and alternate between running and walking for each song, adding 5 songs each week for 4 weeks, you would be able to run for 45 minutes straight by the end of the month! This seemed too good not to try, and I had nothing to lose.

I thought it would be much harder to stay consistent with exercising, but the feeling afterward never fails to brighten my mood. I have continued to push myself each week and I can already see results in muscle mass and strength! Even when I couldn't motivate myself or hold focus long enough to do my summer class assignments, I always found the strength to exercise during the week. In the last week of class when I was on a time crunch, I would actually "punish" myself by not letting myself exercise so that I could stay focused on finishing my work.

Although I am currently motivated by being in the best shape I can be when/if ultimate and volleyball return, it's a good feeling to not go the whole summer without intense exercise and feeling like half of the season is getting back in shape. I'm kind of becoming a work(out)aholic nowadays. I bought Gymshark leggings from Poshmark (which are adorable, by the way!) and I drink protein with oatmilk after every workout! (highly recommend Trader Joes Aria protein because it tastes like vanilla cake batter)

As cliché as it sounds, exercising really has improved my mental and physical health the past three months and I really hope I can keep this up when the fall semester arrives, and beyond. I never thought that I could get into the habit of regular exercise without having a sport. If you ever need a workout buddy in the future, I got you!