Rhianne: Exercise and me
In the next in our series of monthly guest bloggers, I introduce to you Rhianne. I have known Rhianne for some time now, primarily through her running too. Rhianne's take on exercise is two fold: Not only does she run to keep herself fit, she teaches fitness too. Below are her words... Throughout my life I’ve always have a keen interest in health and fitness and was a competitive swimmer for ten years.
After retiring from competitive swimming, I increased my gym sessions and started attending a range of fitness classes. It didn’t take long for me to get ‘the bug’ and I decided I wanted to become an instructor and help other people to achieve their goals.
I gained a variety of fitness qualifications including Level 2 Fitness Instructor, Les Mills Bodypump, Les Mills Bodycombat, Les Mills Bodybalance, studio cycling, Pilates and many more. The opportunity came along to teach full time and I did so for around a year. Teaching many classes every week, with minimal recovery, was taking its toll on my body and I decided it was time to think about what was best for me. I didn’t want to give up on fitness but I knew I couldn’t maintain teaching a high volume of classes long term.
I pursued a career in Marketing and Communications and have been working in that field since February 2012. I thoroughly enjoy my profession and have never lost my passion for health and fitness. Due to working full time I’ve had to find a work/life balance, which was difficult initially as I didn’t want to cut back on my classes, and I now teach Bodypump twice a week.
In addition to teaching, I enjoy running and attending fitness classes, such as studio cycling. I’ve never lost my competitiveness and am always keen to improve whether it be beating my running PBs or increasing my weights in Bodypump.
From time to time, I put myself under pressure to perform well and I believe that comes from all the years of racing and always wanting to win. I get frustrated with myself when I’m not achieving what I want to and sometimes have to remind myself that it doesn’t mean I’m failing if, for example, I don’t run a PB at parkrun. In those moments, I think it’s important to remember why I’m exercising now and it’s not about winning gold medals any more it’s about investing in my health and well-being.
My advice to anyone who feels like they’re not performing well and questioning why they keep putting their bodies through exercise is to remember you’re doing it for you and you’re probably doing much better than you think. When you look in the mirror that’s your competition, don’t focus on what other people are doing just focus on your own goals. And most importantly…don’t be so hard on yourself! Sometimes you’ll feel like you’ve had a ‘bad’ workout and haven’t achieved anything but if you’re trying your best that’s enough and there’s no such thing as a bad workout, they all count. Everything you’re doing is making a difference to your health and well-being so don’t give up!
