Candice

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been completely self-motivated when it comes to fitness. After growing up as a multi-sport athlete and playing four years of college volleyball, I transitioned into other forms of intense physical activity such as training to become a spin instructor. For the most part, I’ve been really disciplined at getting myself to a workout and pushing myself to get better and better to achieve my fitness goals

However, this year I’ve found myself in need of a little more inspiration. I’ve never been a run-on-a-treadmill or workout-at-home kind of gal. I love the environment of a gym or fitness studio or the beautiful outdoors. With some of those options being limited at different points throughout the year, the allure of physical fitness has been bleak at times.

I needed some support from the yeg fitness community and started to lean on that. Now more than ever I’ve looked to instructor guided classes to give me that extra boost, motivation and accountability I need. Ironically, I’m a spin instructor myself at the local fitness studio @hivefitco. Not sure what I’d do without that place. While my personal preference is in-person classes, the online classes still provide that accountability, team atmosphere and extra needed push from the instructor. I’ve also made a switch to lunch time workouts. I found I’m extremely productive working from home, to the point where I don’t take breaks. Working out in the middle of the day to give my brain the break it needs has been very beneficial and rejuvenating for my mind and my body.

My other saving grace for fitness inspiration has been finding myself a running mate, and thank goodness we will always have the outdoors. My 11 month old Australian Shepherd, Jack, has been my running mate and motivation to keep up with my River Valley runs throughout COVID-19. Now that he’s older, we’ve worked up to 5-6 KM runs that we try to do twice a week.