How to keep your daily goals going

This post isn't just aimed for 'dancers'. After visiting home during the holidays and discussing fitness plans with my parents i found out how much of a universal challenge it is. It takes time to get into a routine and you need to see a goal as to what you are doing, and enjoy it to actually get started. We know what we need but getting started or even continuing seems impossible and with constantly changing time schedules it can be difficult to dedicate a specific moment in the day.

I know when you see an exercise knowing doing it everyday will greatly improve your dancing (or overall fitness) we think 'its only 10 minutes it'll be easy'. And then 10+ exercises later we end up with hour routines barely touch everything. On lazy days this seems manageable, but between classes and work they slowly add up and we end up stopping altogether. We did exactly what we didn't want to.

How can we stay on track, do everything we need but not get overwhelmed?

- Start with one area of focus. What do you want to work on most? Is it your feet flexibility and strength, how about core work or hamstring flexibility.

- Target the one you want most and pick 3 exercises.

My short routine is my feet.

Using a theraband I do flex and pointes with my feet, 10 on the right and 15 on the left (my weaker foot) and then 100 foot grabs (foot flat on the floor and picking up and dropping pasta or marbles with my toes). This will take less than 5 minutes and makes it easy to do wherever I am.

- That's part one- just focus on your activity for a week. After 21 days something becomes a habit so add something new every week will heighten the chance of keeping them going AND makes sure that the activities can be done indepedently.

for example

week one- 10 mins of feet

week two- 10 mins of feet and hip flexor strengtheing

week three- 10 mins of feet, hip flexor training and squat sequences

...

- If you struggle managing reps and sets, I am experimenting with challenges at the moments where i do 100 reps of an exercise. Every day i will do 100 squats or pushups as part of the 100 a day for a month challenge.

- Think of separate exercises, the more you link them for instance warming up then strengthening the quads, then stretching then leading into the piriformis and hip flexors- you suddenly have a two hour sequence that is harder to commit to.

- Keep sequences to 30 minutes or less, and upto 4 different ones so you can tailor and use flexibility throughout your changing days.

- If you are coming from class you can do stretches then when warm and save time warming up.