Hot & Sweaty With Or Without Mr Grey... #ThisGirlCan

Louise George - Bodhi Babes
Feb 17, 2015
3 min read

The release of 50 Shades of Grey has got Women blushing lately.

But there's another great campaign getting lots of attention recently...

Taking part will also get you hot, sweaty and heavy breathing, but no need for Mr Grey, this one you can do alone or with friends' ladies!

Sport England have established a brilliant campaign - #ThisGirlCan, to encourage women of all shapes, sizes and athletic ability to get active and take up sports.

"This Girl Can is a national campaign developed by Sport England and a wide range of partnership organisations. It's a celebration of active women up and down the country who are doing their thing no matter how well they do it, how they look or even how red their face gets."

Our bodies are designed to move regularly and unfortunately our environments don't always make it easy to keep fit and active. Transport and technology are making it even easier for us to get from A-B without taking more than a few steps between our sofas, front doors, cars and places of work. Many people working in office cubicles barely move all day, accept to make a cup of (much needed) coffee to stay awake. Not getting regular exercise causes our bodies to atrophy...

It's important to make sure we're getting regular exercise.

For the past 3 years I have been coaching women in running fitness and one of the main things I've noticed in my runners (as well as improved fitness) is the massive improvement in confidence. Women often join us feeling self-conscious, embarrassed and nervous, out of their comfort zone.

Once they start running, they soon relax, enjoying the exercise. By the end of the sessions they are grinning from ear to ear, with the buzz of those feel good hormones and sense of achievement.

Exercise can be tough to begin with but as the weeks go on fitness and confidence grow more and more, with goals being reached, new friends being made and brain chemistry changing, to reward you with a greater sense of self and happiness.

Pick a sport or exercise that you'll enjoy, try something new and set your self goals to make it easier to stick to.

Use this formula to help you create your goals:

S pecific

M easurable

A greed/ achievable

R ealistic

T ime

S is for Specific. Put some detail around your target. Rather than saying that you want to complete a 5k run you need to decide when and where this will take place.
M is for Measurable. Do you have a target time for your run? Do you want to run it faster than the last time or do you want to get round without walking?
A is for Agreed. Tell someone about your goal. This may be a running coach or leader or it could be a friend or member of your family. By talking it through with someone you will benefit from another pair of eyes looking at the goal, helping you to think through it more thoroughly, iron out the pros and cons and, in the long term, help you to stick with your decision. Make sure it's also something you're able to achieve, bearing in mind how long you have and your current fitness levels.
R is for Realistic. To assess how realistic your goal is you need to benchmark where you are now. What are your current fitness levels? Perhaps you need to measure them if you're not sure. Once you know your starting point you need to look at the time you have available for training. With this information you will be able to work out how long it will take you to achieve the goal you are setting.
T is for Time Phased. You will have worked out when you want achieve your goal. Now you need to put in some milestones along the way. Are there some key sessions or races that you can run to check that your training is on track? Maybe you could put an interval run every three or four weeks and note your improvement rate.