By Natali Zollinger
Summer is officially here and with it’s endless sunny days to paddle those waterways it’s time to start thinking about your fitness. With not much time to spare, we wanted to help you jumpstart your body towards “getting in and staying in shape” all summer long with 5 unique tips to biohack your fitness.
Establish your Morning Routine. With the refreshingly warm summer weather, it’s easy to find an excuse to skip out on any AND all routines. So, this first tip may come as a surprise. Look at being in shape as something that is attainable AND sustainable no matter your age or season! Start slow and build up your foundation the right way. Don’t jump all in or you may burn out quick from both ends.
Here’s your first tip. Start each day out with a 30 minute fasted morning walk. Something you can do every morning to put you in the right mental state to conquer each and every day! For an added bonus, use caffeine (with no calories) like Black Coffee or Green Tea to help you increase your fat oxidation for up to 24 hours after your walk. Metabolizing those fatty acids will help you get a jump start on losing those extra stubborn pounds leftover from the long winter season.
For an extra credit after your workout, immediately take a 5 minute hot/cold contrast shower! Cold thermogenesis or cold exposure will stimulate your brown adipose tissue to kick in and burn your white adipose tissue for fuel to warm your body back up! It’s a FREE and a SUSTAINABLE routine that will help you keep weight off ALL SEASON LONG with or without exercise! Shoot for 20 seconds hot, 20 seconds cold, for a total of 5 minutes for Total Metabolic Efficiency!
Goal Set. Train smarter not harder. What are your goals for the summer and beyond? Endurance? Speed? Strength? Performance? Looking good so you can feel better? All of them? Great! Establish these first BEFORE you go into this summer season so you have the right intentions AND expectations for success!
When we conquer a goal, we get a mini release of dopamine. Dopamine is our feel good hormone and will get released every time we achieve our goals. The more we can achieve the quicker we can convert them into a habit and a long term positive stress response towards your optimal routine.
Figure out your first goal and break it down into mini bite-size goals. For example: If you’re looking for “overall strength”, that might be too vague. Consider goals like, “I’d like to run my first 5k.” Or “Paddle a certain section of river” Or I’d like to be able to do 20 pull-ups.” These goals have tangible outcomes to help you better plan by moving backward in your preparation process in order to find your first step. Clarity is key when it comes to accomplishing your goals.
If you need help or are looking to start a program specific for your sport or race season, contact Natali Zollinger and she can help you build one!
Variety with Community. Working out with friends or family helps keep the continued motivation towards maintaining our health and wellness. Find a group of people whom you can rotate through that will help you stay active and accountable all season long. With each new person comes new opportunities. Say yes to the unknown. Variety is KEY for sustainability. Mix up your location, sport, and time of day. This will help you see movement differently and not get burnt out with the same old same old.
Get Outdoors! No need for equipment. Let nature be your gym! If you close your eyes, and open them with the idea of seeing your surroundings as your gym, you’ll realize how much you have around you to utilize for a quick and effective workout!
Kids Playgrounds are a fun and free place to sweat. I like to use monkey bars for pull-ups, benches for jump squats and swings for a makeshift TRX strap. All fun and unique ways to mix and match your workouts to be both challenging and refreshing!
Bike Paths are also a great way to get in a short HIIT workout or Sprint Training. They usually have benches for props and a reliable surface to run on to get in that sprint training. Shoot for 20 seconds of an exercise or sprint session with 10 seconds rest for a total of 4 minutes. Repeat this a few times a day 2-3 times a week to help maintain your body as a fat burning machine!
Rest, Recover, and Repeat. Summer’s are about socializing and going from activity to activity. But, with all that movement, it’s good to understand and recognize when it’s time to turn the dial back and push the pause button. Yoga, Meditation, Body Work and Mobility Exercises will help reset your body from all the go go go.
Here’s another tip, that may not be as obvious. Invest in a Journal. There’s so much that we can get when we purge what’s going on in our heads on a daily basis. Just start writing. Whatever you want whenever you want and don’t worry about rereading it. Just get those thoughts out of your head and onto paper.
Writing things down is the first step to many different things. One big thing is a daily therapy and gratitude practice. Are you not able to really get the results you want because you have a physical or mental trauma holding you back? Begin the healing process by getting it down on paper. There’s something engrained in us when we see things written on paper. Make the first step and just start writing. Once this becomes a habit, then you rotate between one for personal use, business use, or even just as a gratitude journal to keep a positive outlook when life gets overwhelming and complicated.
This type of outlook will not only help you heal from the inside out, but help your mental and emotional fitness TRAIN AND MATCH your physical fitness. All steps towards a total body transformation. I hope this helps and gives you a better understanding of new ways to biohack and build your fitness into this summer and the seasons to come.
If you’re interested in starting your own specific program, contact me (Natali), I’d love to help set you up for success!
To Health, Highwater, and the Pursuit of Happiness
-Natali Zollinger
Astral Athlete, Badfish Team Rider, RVR2RVR, Fitness Trainer
tierra fitness videos
If you’d like a little more guidance you can also purchase my Pretreat workout videos. These were created to help my clients get ready for my retreats.
$20 for a 6 Video Bundle
These are yours to have for as long as you’d like! Download them to any device so you can workout ANYTIME or ANYWHERE in the comforts of your own home, while on the road, or on vacation! Each video pairs up with each day of the week. The goal is to repeat them every week for as long as you want, wherever you want. NO need for a gym, all you need is a mat, the videos and a place to sweat.
- Mondays in Motion (Cardio Based Video)
- Tone it up Tuesday (Lengthen + Tone Video)
- Wednesdays WOD (Bodyweight Strength Video)
- Tabata Thursday (HIIT Video)
- Freestyle Friday (Tips on how to use nature as our gym)
- Stretch it Out Saturday (Yoga and Recovery Video)
- OFF DAY
Reach out to me at natalizollinger@gmail.com if you’re interested or have any questions.
