Get your Brain Beach Ready

Living Well

Written by: Meg Sharp, Fitness & Wellbeing Consultant, Cambridge Group of Clubs

Cutting and shredding are things I do to vegetables and cheese when I’m preparing dinner.

On a related note, lately people have been asking what kinds of workouts will help them get their bodies ready for bathing suit season. I have a pretty straightforward answer to that: any workout that builds your self-confidence.

There is no ideal hip to waist ratio, no perfect circumference for a thigh or an arm or a midsection. Neither is there the right percentage of body fat or most attractive silhouette.

Our bodies are complex puzzles with pieces built from a myriad of diverse bone shapes and length, genes that fit into different jeans, muscles that preferentially twitch slow or fast, and body compositions created by a rich mix of ancestry, sport, and dietary preferences, gender, age, lifestyle, stress levels, and sleep patterns.

“I look amazing in a swim suit” is a sentence too few of us utter. Let alone call out from the lifeguard perch. Why?!?? I assure you it has much less to do with the dimensions of our bodies and far more to do with our perceptions: Of other’s relative perfection. Of our own supposed flaws.

Pride is a tricky concept. It can – in certain situations – be a challenging force. While in others it can be a powerful, wonderful thing.

Pride in what your body is capable is transformational. Pride in your strength. Your resilience. Your unique abilities. Those strong arms that allow you to bench press, swing a tennis racquet, plant flowers, and vegetables in the garden, and hold someone tight. Those incredible legs that can kick a soccer ball, squat a crazy amount of weight, stand tall as a leader, and bend to the floor to play with Legos. That beautiful belly, that maybe grew a child, can hold a plank for a minute, appreciates delicious food prepared by a loved one, supports a powerful golf swing, and laughs uproariously at a friend’s story.

These are the things that make our bodies so beautiful.

Exercise – in many different forms – can transform the way we see ourselves. It can make us feel better in our skin and bones just as we are. Interestingly, just feeling better about ourselves encourages us to stand taller. Draw our shoulders back. Do we look a little better when we stand with comfort and confidence. You bet we do.

So, if you’re looking to spend the month of June getting ready for the beach, here’s my advice to you:

Move. 

Whenever possible do activities, you enjoy. Having fun while exercising improves your relationship with and your perception of your body. People who enjoy their workouts are far more likely to stick with them, sweat a little longer, and even push themselves harder.

Which brings me to my next point: If you can, move a little more and definitely up the intensity. Lift heavy things. Drive your heart rate through the roof. In my experience, there is nothing quite like an intense weight workout or a really tough run, hike, bike ride, or group fitness class to make you feel AWESOME. To leave you feeling more self-confident and better about your body. Even if just a little bit, you’re definitely nudging the needle in the right direction.

Plus, those intense workouts have a few compelling side effects:

They impact your brain on many levels. And here’s one of my favourites: When people are anxious or depressed their brains can become biased to negative thoughts. Intense exercise is remarkable in its ability to help us literally change our neural connections – sometimes right away! – and bias our thoughts more toward the positive. 

For example:

“I had such a long day today. I was tired and dragged my sorry butt to the gym but only managed to do squats and rows.”

vs

“Even though I had a nuts day I still made it to the gym! My legs were tired but I still managed to do 3 super sets of squats and rows! Felt so much better afterwards.”

My last thought on this (do I dare mention it?!): adding one or two intense workouts a week to your schedule will increase lean tissue, boost your metabolic rate, and – because your forearms will get stronger – it might make cutting and shredding easier too 😉