Smartwatches, fitness tracker apps and other gadgets that help you measure your athletic performance are all the rage with athletes that are crazy about witnessing their progress and body changes in real time. Are you about to give into the trend to track your fitness? Think it will boost the effectiveness of your workout routine? Does it actually help you make faster progress? The FizzUp trainer reveals whether it’s better to track your fitness or listen to your body.
Tracking your fitness is typically used to keep you motivated when you start a regular physical activity. It visualizes the results of all your hard work. Measuring your athletic performance makes you feel like you’re doing something right and helps you establish a workout routine.
With fitness tracking, you can also gauge your efforts, making it possible to see the exact numbers that represent the progress you’re making. You can compare how you’re performing now vs. how you were performing yesterday and how you measure up to other people. But this can be risky because it turns fitness tracking into a competition, which is motivating for some and discouraging for others. Then comparison comes into play, which can frustrate you and be detrimental to positive thinking when you don’t measure up to your idea of a perfect body or other people’s athletic skills.
Your body is equipped with the best fitness tracker in the world: your ability to feel. Don’t believe us? Fitness tracking was created to meet the needs of a consumer society that encourage you to rely on devices you don’t actually need. Sure, listening to your body won’t tell you the exact distance you covered the last time you went running or mountain biking, and it won’t tell you if you slept better last night or if you ate fewer calories today. But, how you’re feeling in your body and the food you put into it are the ultimate indicators of how effective your efforts are. These factors make you feel that physical activity is having a positive effect or that you’re starting to push your limits. If a FizzUp exercise hurts, what you’re feeling tells you that you’re probably doing it wrong. The same goes for what you eat. When you’re satisfied, stop. By paying attention, you’ll notice that you eat more than your body needs. Still, if you never feel satisfied, there could be other problems that explain this, such as the habit of eating large portions, food compensation and your need to fill your stomach.
When you listen to your body, not only are you able to say if you went beyond your limits or not, or if your workout was harder than the ones you did before, but also which areas your body you’re working. Focusing your attention on what you’re feeling as you exercise connects you not to an object, but to your body as a whole. You’ll see that you’re more than just a head with a brain that thinks. You’re also an entire body that lives. You might not think this is important, but making this realization can significantly add to your quality of life. Changing your outlook can make you more inclined to take better care of your body and be proactive about your everyday wellness. To make it easier to tune in to your body, FizzUp recommends mindfulness meditation. Harness the power of your mind after your workout and practice listening to your body to strengthen both your physical AND mental fitness.
Fitness tracking doesn’t slow your progress right away, but it can spoil your relationship with physical activity, your self-image and your personal growth. Don’t forget that enjoying your workout and what you eat are critical factors. Exercise should make you feel fantastic, not broken. It should lift you up, not destroy your self-confidence. It’s there to make your wellness flourish by bringing out all your hidden potential and improving your quality of life. Tracking your fitness does make you push yourself harder, but it can also throw you into a vicious circle that makes you feel guilty if you don’t beat your personal records, make progress as quickly as everyone else or lose the weight you were expecting to. And then what happens? Your motivation tanks.
You CAN overcome these hurdles to finally enjoy being physically active and taking better care of your health AND use a few ways to track your fitness that won’t negatively impact your wellness. It all comes down to finding a happy medium. If your most important goal is to focus on your wellness, improve your health and sculpt an athletic physique, you don’t need to be tracking your fitness. At FizzUp, we want to make sure our users understand that fun is the key to a lasting fitness routine and achieving results. That’s why the trainer encourages cooperation, but competition, within the Team FizzUp community. Despite this, he’ll give you a few workout stats to show you how much progress you’ve made at the end of every level. This is to reinforce your desire to stay in shape without letting you fall into a vicious circle. Rely on FizzUp fitness training to keep both your body and mind on the up and up.
If you want to track your fitness, just listening to your body might sound ridiculous, but it’s without a doubt the best way to measure your progress. Change the way you think about your fitness journey to watch your motivation skyrocket and supercharge your results.
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