I’ve been featured in Stylist in an article by Lisa Bowman exploring nine wellness habits that may be making burnout worse.
The article looks at how things we do to improve our health can become another source of pressure. From rigid morning routines and unnecessary wellness gadgets to treating self-care as a solution to an overloaded life, it asks a useful question: is this actually helping, or is it giving us more to manage?
Nine experts contribute their perspectives across fitness, nutrition, psychology and wellbeing. A common thread is that adding more to your routine isn’t always the answer. Sometimes the most helpful step is to reduce the demands you’re placing on yourself.
My contribution: sacrificing sleep to exercise
Lisa asked me about cutting sleep short to fit in a workout.
Exercise matters, but regularly sacrificing sleep to get it done can leave you more tired, affect your mood and concentration, and reduce your performance during training. My concern is that you end up just getting through the workout, paying less attention to technique and ticking a box, rather than doing something you really enjoy that improves your day and has the potential to produce the results you’re looking for.
My advice in the article is to protect sleep first, then work out where exercise fits.
That means looking honestly at your week. Could you train at lunchtime, exercise at home or walk some journeys? Could an earlier bedtime make a morning session more manageable? Could you use the weekend to take some pressure off the working week?
Work and family commitments mean some days won’t go to plan. Being able to adapt your sessions is part of building a routine you can sustain.
Making healthy habits work for your life
What I like about this article is that it questions the pressure to do everything perfectly. A healthy habit needs to earn its place in your life by helping you, rather than becoming another obligation you feel guilty about.
This is something I work on with clients every day. A training plan needs to account for your goals, your available time and your ability to recover. The aim is to balance activity, recovery and enjoyment so that exercise becomes a worthwhile, sustainable part of your week.
Read the full article in Stylist.
Joseph Webb
Expert coaching. Entirely personal.
Chartered Personal Trainer | FRSPH | FCIMSPA
