Hello!!!!!
I have to confess that I've fallen off with my gym routine this summer. I've leaned heavy into fun (as we should!!!) but as I attempt to lock back in, I'm fitting the gym into my fun schedule vs fitting my fun around a structured gym schedule. Is this the best way? Perhaps not. But it is the way that works for us right now. And because I am going to the gym at one time one day and another the next (if I make it there), I am seeing all the girlies I don't normally see and no matter what time I am there, I am in awe of the girls putting in the work. This is my love letter to you all. 🤍
To the 6am girl:
We see you (we wish we were you). Alarm going off in the dark, coffee half-made, bag already packed the night before because you know that future-you will not have the same energy as present-you. You're out the door before most people have opened their eyes, and there's something about that, the quiet, the (mostly) empty gym, the feeling of having already done something before the day has had a chance to derail you, that you've become a little addicted to.
You don't need us to tell you you're impressive. You already know. But it's always nice to be told anyway. 🖤
To the 9pm girl:
You didn't skip. You just went late.
The day happened, work, errands, dinner, the thing that came up that always comes up, and somehow, at an hour when most people are horizontal on a couch, you laced up and went anyway. The gym is quieter now. The energy is different. A little tired, and maybe a little defiant, but yours to get it done.
This counts. Everything you did tonight counts. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, including and especially the part of your brain that spent all day feeling guilty about not going earlier. (We're not not talking to ourselves here)
To the lunch break girl:
Forty-five minutes. You make it work in forty-five minutes.
No time to overthink, no time to scroll, no warmup music selection crisis, just in, work, out, back to your desk with your hair still a little damp and your head a lot clearer. You've turned a stolen hour into a whole practice, and honestly? The efficiency of it is kind of incredible, teach us how?
To the "I'll go after the kids are in bed" girl:
The logistics of your training schedule and just your schedule in general would make most people's heads spin. You work around school pickups and bedtime routines and the mental load of a thousand small things, and somehow you still carve out time for yourself.
That's not lucky. That's deliberate. You chose yourself, in the margins of a day that demanded everything from you. That matters more than you know.
To the "I haven't been in three weeks and I'm nervous to go back" girl:
Hi. We've been thinking about you. (we are you)
Life got in the way, or you got in your own way, or both and now there's this invisible barrier between you and the gym that grows a little taller every day you don't go. You think everyone will notice. You think you'll have lost everything. You think you have to earn your way back in somehow.
You don't. You just have to go. The time will pass anyway.
The gym doesn't keep score. Neither do we. Show up as you are, where you are, and start from there. That's literally it.
To the girl who trains every single day without fail:
We love your dedication. We also gently, lovingly want to remind you that rest is part of the work. You're allowed to take a day. Your muscles will thank you and your PRs will prove it.
You've got nothing to prove by never stopping. You've already proven it. 🖤
To the girl who just started:
Everything feels awkward and heavy and slightly overwhelming and that is exactly, perfectly normal. Every single person you see moving confidently through the gym floor was once exactly where you are right now, sometimes they still are there.
You're not behind. You're at the beginning. There's a difference!!!
To all of you:
The 6am girl and the 9pm girl and the lunch break girl and the once-a-week girl and the girl who's been at this for ten years and the girl who started last Tuesday - you are all doing the same thing. You're showing up for yourself. In whatever way you can, in whatever window you have, with whatever energy is left.
That's genuinely no small thing.
Alura is built for all of you. Every training schedule, every gym era, every version of you that shows up - imperfect, inconsistent, completely worthy of gear that keeps up.
We're so glad you're here. 🖤
Related reads:
🖤 Plot Twist: June Is the New January
