The Power of a SINGLE Workout

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Hi guys and welcome to another episode of the Double Busy and Fit podcast. In today's episode, we're going to be discussing the power of a single workout. Now it is true that when it comes to working out and training, the ultimate goal is to be somebody who consistently trains regularly within a week, perhaps two or three times in the gym lifting weights and maybe a couple of extra more cardiovascular focus sessions in the week. So yes, it is true.

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that that is the optimal approach. But does that mean that anything less than that isn't worth doing? Now, it might be the case that for you listening right now, you've maybe never trained before. Or it's the case that maybe you do train, but just right now, you're not in the habit of training. And perhaps the thought of getting to this point of two or three workouts a week is gonna seem a little bit daunting for you.

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and it's easy to fall into the all or nothing approach where if I can't train regularly going forward, then what's the point in doing anything at all? And that's what this podcast is here to address today as we focus on the power of a single workout. Now, the first benefit that I wanted to touch on is actually a physiological benefit. So a physical benefit of training. And at the same time as this being a benefit, it's also

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one of the biggest barriers that might be stopping somebody from consistently training at the moment and that is that training is going to boost your energy. So as I said it might be the case that the reason you're not training at the moment is because you feel that you lack energy. Maybe work is really demanding, maybe you've got some personal situation going on at home, in your family life, in your social life that's really taken out of you, you might have increased

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that you're just not finding the energy to want to go and train. And it's weird because it's this odd exchange of energy with training where you might be looking at a workout thinking, I don't have the energy to go and do this because there is obviously an energy cost for going to do a workout. But then on the other side of that workout, people always leave feeling more energized. So it's this odd relationship with energy.

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that we have when it comes to training. So if you can just muster the courage to get through the door and start that workout, chances are you're gonna leave in the next 30 to 60 minutes feeling like you've actually got a little bit of energy, which will feel like such a relief if you're currently in a position of low energy. And not only does this work in the short term, but this is gonna have an effect for the rest of the day when you sleep better that night.

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So even just one workout can have a very positive effect on the quality and the duration of our sleep. And then of course, if we get a better night's sleep, then the following day, we're gonna have more energy again. So my pro tip to make this a little bit easier for you to confront if you're in a position of low energy is to just commit yourself to go in and doing the warmup. So just that first five to 10 minutes of your session, maybe some light stretching.

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Maybe just get the pulse raised a little bit. Just maybe start to break a little bit of a sweat and only commit yourself to doing the warmup. Don't even worry about the main body of the workout because I think when people are considering going to the gym, they immediately think of the most difficult, toughest portions of the workout. Whereas if you can just step over the threshold and get the warmup done, then you'll just start to feel that energy boost.

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as you start moving your body. So that is my pro tip when it comes to increasing energy from a single workout. So now we've covered a physical benefit of a single workout. I wanted to switch it over to more of a mental benefit because as you know, there are a huge benefit to our mental health for working out, for moving our body. So the first one that I wanted to focus on is actually a concept that we talk about a lot at Fitness Studio 46.

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which is this idea of iron therapy. So if you're in a position of feeling really overwhelmed, maybe you're in a bit of a dark place and in a bit of a negative place, working out can be a lifeline to feeling better. And it's actually now the case where working out is becoming one of the only prescribed treatments of depression that's non-medicated. So if you go to the doctor and you're feeling

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particularly overwhelmed and negative, they're gonna probably suggest that you do some physical activity. But when that recommendation comes, I don't think it's specific to lifting weights. However, with that being kind of our area of expertise, that's what I'm talking about here with the concept of iron therapy. And iron therapy is really just a chance to take out some stress and some frustration on some heavy weights. Now, this is maybe a little bit of a hard concept to explain to...

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to someone if they're not in the habit of regularly training. But I think the best way to learn the benefits of iron therapy is to obviously build that habit. But even just one single workout is a great way to reduce stress and to reduce overwhelm. And one of the key things that I try and highlight for clients when they're coming into the gym to train and they're potentially overwhelmed is that

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That hour is just chance for them to fully tune everything out that is outside of the gym doors. It's an hour to completely concentrate on yourself and on becoming a better version of you. And beyond that, whilst you're actually in the working set, so whilst you're actually lifting weights, it's very difficult to think of anything else when you're holding a barbell over your chest or you're squatting, because you're just so focused on that movement and that moment.

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that really you're actually fully present in what you're doing. And I think when you're overwhelmed and when you're particularly stressed, being present is one of the hardest things to create and to manufacture within a day. And the weight room is just one place that lets you do that with ease. So really the concept of iron therapy is something that you kind of have to live and experience, but it is a massive, massive tool for improving mental health in that way.

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Awesome. So moving on, we are onto another physical benefit of a single workout. And that is the feeling of just being more mobile or more supple after a single workout. And really at the ripe old age of 25, I am starting to notice this. I know that a lot of people listening to this might be a little bit older than me. But when I reflect back to training and playing sports when I was like 18, 19, 20.

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I really didn't have to warm up very much. I always did just through good practice, but I could just tie my shoelaces, run in and start. It was really that simple. Whereas now it actually takes a little while for me to get going. I actually spend a lot of my day at the desk. I do a lot of work on the back end of the gym, lots of writing, podcasting, sales and marketing, meetings, networking. So most of the time I'm sat down. So when I come to train,

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I am definitely a little bit stiff when I first start warming up, but there is nothing like that feeling of having your mobility back, feeling loose, your muscles are warm and everything is just pliable and can be moved well. It really makes your body feel so much better. It makes your posture feel better. You might even be able to reduce a couple of aches and pains with some effective stretching and just get everything feeling good again.

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And a quick little anecdote for you guys. I've been recently helping out my granddad with some training. So he is in his mid 70s. He suffered a really severe injury about, oh, I think it must be almost 20 years ago. And his mobility has suffered so much as a result of that injury. So as you can imagine, our training isn't necessarily spectacular.

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It's definitely focused on just reclaiming some movement and trying to deal with all of these mobility issues that have come up as a result of that initial injury. But every single time we train, he is always in complete shock at how light his body feels when he when he leaves because he's in pain every single day. And just to loosen up and to move his joints and to move some some muscles and get some blood flow in.

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He just walks out feeling like he's walking on air, which is really funny to me every single week, but he's always just so shocked at how much better he feels for having moved. And I think that's just amplified for someone in their mid-70s with chronic pain and with some severe mobility issues, but it's definitely also the case for every single busy professional that we train at Fitness Studio 46. Okay, great. So moving on.

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We're back to another mental health benefit. So we've kind of gone physical health mental health physical health again we're back to mental health now and That is the concept that You were just gonna leave a workout happier than you walked into a workout and There is a physiological reason for this. So when we work out our body produces endorphins Namely one of the main ones being serotonin

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which is what we always call it the feel good hormone. And actually on a chemical level, you will leave happier than when you came in. And I think that's why it's becoming so important for doctor referrals to encourage exercise, especially in the cases of depression, because even chemically, you're gonna get a chemical assistance naturally from the brain.

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through the release of these feel-good endorphins, neurotransmitters and chemicals. So it's a big, big plus for your mental health to work out even just for one single session. But then another potential way that working out can make you happier is the environment that you go to in order to train. So it might be the case that you train at home alone, but a lot of people will go to a gym or they'll go to some fitness classes and they'll be with other people.

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Now, I know that not all gyms are made equal, and some gyms can definitely be intimidating and maybe a little bit cold. You might just be a number, you might even be ignored. So I'm not gonna discard that. But even at those kinds of gyms, like the big commercial facilities where people don't know who you are, there are still nice people to be found in those gyms. There really are. And I've met some really, really nice, genuine, positive.

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and caring people in fitness classes, especially when I used to teach them, but even just chatting to people at random in the gym, because gyms do naturally attract people who are trying to be better people, and they're usually nice people at that. So if you can be a bit more selective about how and where you train, you can kill two birds with one stone here. So you can go to the gym in order

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in order to get all of the benefits we've already discussed. But then if you also choose a gym that's got a great environment, this is gonna contribute to your social health, your happiness, it might lead to some cool friendships, and it can really enrich your overall life and give you a sense of belonging and a greater sense of happiness. So with that said, we kind of come in full circle here. There's another point that I wanted to...

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draw out, which is very similar to the first point, because as well as it being a benefit of doing a single workout, it's also a barrier as to why you might not be working out at the moment. And that is motivation. So motivation, a bit like energy, it has a little bit of a weird exchange, as it were. So most people feel that they need to

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reach a level of motivation in order to take an action, but kind of the opposite is true, where if you can just take the initial action, then it leads to motivation. And I know that that's a little bit of an oversimplification, but in practice it is true. So if you are waiting for the desire to become so strong for you to go to the gym that you actually go, you could be waiting a long time. Whereas

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If you just went and you didn't really give it much thought, you just turned up and you do a workout, I can guarantee that by the end of that workout, you will feel more motivated to train. And this is really important because I think the longer that you wait to get into the gym, if it's something that you want to do, even if you're not particularly motivated, but you know you should be going and you want to go, but you're just not feeling it at the moment, I think the longer that you wait,

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to go in and do that first workout, the harder it gets. And I think you actually slowly start to lose confidence in yourself. I always remember one particular client said to me, they were like, how do you build confidence? And I had to really give it some thought. And I've looked into it. I might have to do another podcast on that concept of confidence. But the answer that I gave was, you build confidence when you keep the promises.

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that you make to yourself. And the gym is a really simple way to practice that. So if you keep saying, oh, I really wanna go to the gym. I know I've got to go to the gym. Oh, I'll go next week. I'll go next week. But the motivation never kicks in and you never go. Then every single time you push it back, I think you slowly start to lose confidence in your ability to keep your own promises. And that can be sort of isolated to the gym, but really I think it's

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I think it has a deeper knock-on effect to your overall confidence. I find that people who keep saying they're going to do stuff and then it never happens, they do have a lower confidence in their ability to take action. So waiting for motivation is a dangerous game. And if you are able to just go in and get that workout done, then you have the opportunity to build confidence in yourself. So the next time that you say you want to do something,

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You've already proven that you can. And really, I think that does develop your overall sense of confidence that can knock over into family life. It can knock over into your work life. And you slowly start to become a more confident and more motivated person. So already there, I've kind of naturally moved into talking about increasing motivation and confidence with a view to training regularly and keeping the next promise to yourself to go to the gym.

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So really, I'll end on that point, but just to recap before I do, I do believe truly in the power of a single workout. And I mean that purely in isolation, just one workout on a random day and the magical benefits that it can have. If you could sell somebody a pill that had the benefits we've covered. So if I handed you over a pill and I said, if you take this, it'll boost your physical energy. You're gonna sleep better that night.

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You're not going to feel as overwhelmed. It's going to give you some calm and some peace for at least a short while. You're going to feel more mobile, more supple. Your body's going to feel a lot better. You're going to be actually happier. So chemically, your brain will be happier. You're going to also enrich your social life and you're going to increase your confidence and motivation. You would be asking me how much that pill costs because you really want to get yourself some of that. And really.

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It doesn't cost very much at all because those are the benefits of a single workout. And the point that I wanted to finish on, although, as I said, this is a podcast about a single workout, you have to do just one in order to reach what we said was the pinnacle and create a habit. So if you're listening to this and you are currently out of the habit of training, just go and do one workout. And when you've got that first one done.

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and you do the hardest rep of all time in the gym, which is opening the front door and going into training. Once you get that first workout out the way, it could lead on to you creating the habit of training again or reestablishing your habit of training. And then you get these benefits week in, week out, and it really does enrich your life. So with all that said, if you are in the local area and you would like to come into Fitness Studio 46,

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and experience the power of a single workout, then all you have to do is shoot me an email, coach at fitness dash studio four six dot co dot UK. Tell me that you've listened to this episode of the podcast and I will cover the cost of that training session for you because I truly do believe in the power of a single workout and I would love to share that gift with you, the podcaster audience. So until next time.

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I will catch you on the next episode of the Double Busy and Fit podcast.