THE POWER OF A 15 MINUTE WORKOUT

Once upon a time, I was able to smash out my regular 45-60 minute workouts 5-6 times a week.
Then during Covid I had 2 kids at home, home schooling one them, attempting to entertain the other and oh yeah, I was also pregnant and felt like absolute shit, so my workout schedule went out the door and I was attempting the absolute bare minimum majority of the time. Chasing the kids around plus some random sporadic workouts was about all I managed to achieve that entire pregnancy.

After having Coopy (my third), my body held onto fluid around my ankles for so long that many days I couldn’t walk. I had also put on the most amount of weight out of three pregnancies so I was uncomfortable in my own body, was sleep deprived and honestly to sum up how I felt, I felt like a big lump of shit. I was knackered, so I wasn’t exercising and that’s one thing I do for myself to help keep on top of my mental health, so of course when I was staying inside with my baby and not doing anything, my anxiety was at a high. You know what, it was a big mixture of things as I had a fresh diagnosis of PTSD during my pregnancy so it could have been a range of things.

I avoided swimming lessons (Chris got in the pool instead), I lived in my oversized tees, would set an alarm to get up before everyone and workout but then turn it off because Coopy had me up and down all night so I’d turn it off but would just lay in bed on my phone anyway so I could have gotten up to move my body, hated getting dressed in any outfits that wasn’t activewear and would have panic attacks trying to find something to wear, avoided crowded places and would only go for walks where I knew where the toilets were because I always had to pee, so it was just easier to stay home.

My point is, not having any movement in my routine meant I wasn’t even giving myself a chance of looking after myself properly and I kept up this shitty habit for about a year, which meant I felt pretty shitty for a year and I don’t think I really enjoyed that fresh newborn stage as much as I would have liked to and I was purely surviving, making sure the kids were taken care of but wasn’t really taking care of me.
I didn’t realise that thinking about that time actually gets me choked up, bugger me.

I knew something had to change, so I reached out to a life coach on the gram and when I worked out how I could make it happen financially (I was already back working as a trainer by then - funnily enough I was getting up at the crack of dawn to train my clients but couldn’t seem to do it for myself yet). After attempting to take Coopy to a group fitness gym that I used to work for and knew I’d love but he absolutely HATED it, screaming louder than the already loud music so it was just not going to happen, I had been managing to do some 12-15 YouTube workouts maybe once or twice a week when Coop occasionally took a nap (EMPHASIS ON OCCASIONALLY) and they always made me feel good. I mentioned this to my life coach and she then asked “why don’t you invite your followers to do your workouts with them and do them live, so you’re accountable to your workouts and you help others do the same?” BOOM, we haven’t looked back since and 15forYOU was born.

Within a couple of weeks, I had put together the schedule and programming for 5 weeks worth of workouts, ready to go with all the wonderful women that signed up to add some movement into their lives. Every day we’d get up early, jump on Facebook live and workout together (many of the women would save the workout for a time in the day that worked for them and the beauty of recording live is that it didn’t matter whether they were doing it at 5am or 5pm, it still feels like it’s live no matter what!) and workout for 15 minutes.

For me, being the trainer meant I had no choice, I had to get up and do my job and run the workout for the crew and after a few weeks, I felt like a new human. It wasn’t only because I was back being group trainer (which I have always loved doing and believe I am really good at, I come ALIVE!), it was because I was back moving my body and exercising consistently again. All of a sudden I stopped doing constant mirror checks because I felt good about myself no matter what my body looked like, I had more energy, I was happier and my anxiety was taking a back seat (I don’t even think it was in the hypothetical car).

When I started to hear from the crew that they were not only sticking to their workouts, but they were loving them, it meant that these 15 minute workouts were actually making a difference. Call them “micro workouts” if you will, a workout is a workout. SOMETHING IS BETTER THAN NOTHING.

I used to be an “all or nothing” type person, which is why I wasn’t exercising after having Coop, however after adapting to my new life with an extra child, this is what works. Yes I still hear the excuses and of course, shit does happen that takes up time, however it’s about MAKING the time for yourself. Excuses will always be there, justifying why all the shit you’re unhappy with isn’t changing. That was me, I get it.

Just like the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink, I’ve designed this online workout method so you’ve got all the tools to start, you just need to remind yourself why you want to make a change and keep reminding yourself every time you go to make an excuse that you know is probably a tad bit crap.

There’s no time like the present to make a change. You don’t need to wait until Monday, or the next beginning of the month or the new year, you can start when you decide you want to make a change.

Even just a 15 minute one.

Lauren
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