Like a lot of us, I've had a really tough spring with stress/illness/grief/injury/life-too-busy-to-work-out-ness. I'm finally getting to a place where I have the time and mental wherewithal to fit in some workouts, and have scheduled them for my weekly calendar--YAY!
But I feel really beaten up and beaten down and my fitness level is not where it usually is. Logic tells me I should be doing things like Classical Stretch or yoga--restorative, gentle workouts. In fact, I recently ordered DDP Yoga, although I've only managed a couple of workouts since I got it.
Here's the thing, though, and I just realized this during today's workout: I don't love those kinds of workouts. I do them and recognize their value, and I feel very affectionate toward Miranda... but they don't make me WANT to work out. And when I'm coming off a slump... what I really need are workouts I WANT to do! Yoga and CS and posture/flexibility rotations need to wait until I'm in a better groove.
...Which is why I love my collection of short, beginner-friendly circuit workouts. Someone recently recommended Kathy Smith's "Total Body Turnaround," which has three 20-minute workouts. It was only $8.00 at Amazon, and sounded worth a try--the circuit workout is PERFECT for what I need right now! Others I love are Michelle Dozois's "10 Minute Solution: Carb Burner" (stupid title, good workouts), KCM's "Start Here," (fantastic, short, energizing cardio workout), and an old Denise Austin workout (Fat Burning Blast, maybe?). They don't take too much out of me, make me happy, and make me feel worked out in the limited time/energy I have right now.
Those are the workouts I always turn to when I'm restarting or recovering.
Anyway, I thought it was kind of interesting, and I thought I'd mention it for anyone else who might be in the same boat: Wanting to work out, but not inspired by the gentle workouts that we so often recommend to each other. What we might need, instead, are shorter, easier versions of our favorite types of workouts!
(Twenty-five years it's taken to figure this out! Ha!)