There’s a lot to be said about why virtual training rocks, and it’s not just about getting fit! Training online in today’s crazy world, provides many mental and physical health benefits that help us connect with others, stick to a routine, and stay as healthy as poss both inside and out.
We can train anywhere. Yes, anywhere!
The great thing about virtual training is we can train anywhere. Yes, anywhere! The only thing that’s holding us back are the limits we place on ourselves. If we believe we can do it, we CAN do it. It just might mean stepping outside our comfort zone for a bit.
There’s really no excuses and all it takes is for us to say – “you know what, I’m going to train no matter what, no matter what circumstance I’m in”. That might seem a bit ‘wan*y’ to some but if we really analyse it, who are we trying to kid, impress or whatever !?! Just do it! Do what’s best for you without caring what anyone else thinks.
While training includes our house, we can also do it when travelling, and pretty much anywhere that we have an Internet connection and a device.
As long as we have a basic setup, virtual training provides the opportunity to keep fit and stay active even when we’re in remote areas.
This is me training in the middle of the desert in Australia. The only thing I needed to contend with was the flies! Hence the headbands all over my face. But that’s commitment and necessary if we want change.
Commitment = Motivation
When we commit to joining a group (even if it’s online) we feel obliged to keep at it. That’s where my wonderful personal trainer comes. When I’ve felt like I didn’t want to join for whatever reason, she’s encouraged me to join. The commitment of joining has given me the motivation to KEEP going even when times have been incredibly hard. And the thing is, I have NEVER finished a session feeling like crap. It’s not only the good feeling of successfully finishing a session, it actually produces all the ‘feel good’ chemicals in the body. Win, win!
By being part of a virtual training group, we end up building a rapport with the other group members and for that reason it makes us want to keep doing them. Once you get into the swing of things, it becomes much easier. It’s certainly been something that I look forward to each day and I’m lost without it when I can’t do it.
Daily connection with other people
This one is massive. Especially if we’re on our own or travelling. Having daily connection with other people is not only good for our mental health, it’s good to connect with other like-minded people. Because of the times we’re in, having a group to touch base with regularly is more essential than ever.
And training virtually provides this opportunity. It’s a daily dose of sanity chatting about how we’re all coping and how we’re all trying to achieve the same thing. It’s also a good chance to talk about the weather and other ‘normal’ things that are going on in between activities.
We don’t have to leave the house (if we don’t need to)
Virtual training online helps if we can’t leave the house for whatever reason. With all the crazy harsh lockdowns happening around the world right now, training online is an easy way to stay fit that’s low cost. It’s particularly good because it saves money on transport costs and is especially good for those of us who work from home.
If we can’t access a virtual training session, there’s plenty of other stuff we can do around the house to keep fit. Check out some of the ideas below.
virtual training each day Helps us to keep to a routine
Keeping to a routine is essential for our mental and physical health. Our mental health has to take precedence over our physical health because it’s our mental health that determines whether we do things or not. If we’re not in a great state ‘mentally’, then how can we expect to be in a great state ‘physically’? Our mental state IS everything! It determines what we do, in EVERYTHING we do. Think about it.
Keeping to a routine provides the opportunity to do something to look forward to while helping keep the structure of the day. This is particularly good when travelling because time can just blend into one long moment (which it is anyway) but it helps us feel like we’re making use of every moment we have.
Virtual training Helps us Build both mental and physical strength
Virtual training not only helps us get physically stronger, it also helps us with mental strength. By this I mean, that sticking to a routine even when it would be easy to give up, helps us develop the mindset that we can achieve anything. This may sound trivial or like a cliche, but it’s true.
Once we conquer one thing, it can give us the strength to try new things. This was really evident when I was training with the flies in the desert. It would’ve been easier just to throw in the towel and keep driving but what would that have accomplished? Not much. It was funny at the same time as challenging and annoying. Funnier for the other group members than for me 😉
It took a lot of courage doing something like training on the side of the road when people were driving past but at the end of the day, who gives a shi* what other people think eh! Luckily there were no accidents from people wondering what the hell I was doing.
other health benefits
By doing an online virtual training class, it’s not only helped improve my physical strength and muscle tone etc, it’s also helped me overcome other things like getting out of my comfort zone. Too often, especially these days, we’ve got used to being pretty soft in all respects of the manner. We are pretty used to taking the easy way out of things. But this method doesn’t allow us to grow. It keeps us caged up in our possibly ‘low expectations’ of ourselves and what we are capable of. But why should it?
Getting out of our comfort zone and doing training in the dust and the dirt not only improves self-esteem but it’s also character building. Doing something that we’ve never done before helps create new neural pathways in the brain for learning. Our brain has to constantly keep up with what we’re doing and by getting out of our comfort zone and doing different things, it certainly provides this opportunity.
If we don’t try, we don’t know eh!
Habit-forming – the virtual way
Probably one of the best parts of doing virtual training is it creates a new habit. The more we build in healthy habits, the more the unhealthy habits tend to drop off.
When we start to do new things, we are setting the scene for developing different habits that we might not have ever seen ourselves doing. This helps create change and ultimately a healthier lifestyle overall. We create the reality we’re living in so it makes sense to start doing things that we would like to see AS our reality. Create new patterns of behaviour.
To read more about incorporating some ‘healthy habits’, click the image below.
Related post: Why Good Morning Habits Matter
Patterns of behaviour can become so entrenched that they become automatic. In order to break ‘not so serving’ automatic patterns of behaviour, we have to do completely different things from what we were doing before.
Virtual training has helped me put myself in front of the camera which I hate to do. But by doing this, it put me right out of my comfort zone and got me doing stuff I never thought I could do – in front of other people. This has then helped me with my work and what I’m currently trying to achieve, both professionally and personally.
A massive thank you to ‘Wellness & Fit Evolution’
Virtual training has been my key to positive change. I can’t recommend it highly enough. So do yourself, and your old patterns of behaviour a favour, enrol in a virtual online fitness class. You won’t regret it 🙂
Dedicated to my amazing friend Mel at Wellness Fit Evolution! I couldn’t have done it without your support and encouragement along the way.
