Transcript: Why Group Fitness Is Just Better (Sorry, Solo Gym People)
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Ashley reintroduces herself and the podcast, noting she's returning to the gym after roughly 10 days off and explaining her new schedule of only going Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
Time to get back on the horse, as they say. What's up, you guys? Famous Elsa Grant here. Welcome to More Movement, Please, the podcast where I hope to inspire you to move your body more. So today I am headed back to the gym after, goodness, what is it, 10 days? I've kind of lost count as to how many days it's been, but it's been a minute since I was last at the gym. I told you guys before that I have made a new rule that I'm basically only going on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays to the gym. That doesn't mean I'm not moving anymore. It means I am still moving, but just moving differently. Yesterday, I went on a hike with my husband, and y 'all, it was effort. It was maximum effort because I think I've told you guys this before whenever I was doing my recap of my trip to Florida, but there is something so different about walking a trail.
Ashley recaps a hike she did with her husband, describing the unexpected difficulty of changing terrain, soaked feet, and blisters — plus her decision to add weighted wristbands to the hike.
with changing terrain than there is about walking on a sidewalk. I mean, I can easily walk a couple miles on a sidewalk, no problem. But going up and down like a changing terrain with rocks and mud and just all the stuff that makes you have to take intentional steps. it's a lot of effort. And by the end of it, I had so many blisters on my feet. I honestly did not expect to get as many blisters as I did, but the area that we were walking was significantly more wet than we expected. And so by the time we were done, my feet were soaked and I mean, it was, it was pretty rough, but it was worth it. It was definitely worth it because getting those, those moves in outside of the gym while also, you know, still doing some form of, of actual effort is what I'm after and I decided yesterday to add to the challenge I added weighted wristbands to my arms while I was doing my walk on in the hike because
it just it was necessary y 'all like it was definitely necessary for me to get an extra effort while I was putting in Well, effort. But it helped. It made me feel really good to be doing strength training while also hiking. I enjoyed the hell out of it. I've really been liking as much hiking as we've been doing. It's been really joyful. Getting my husband out and active has been a goal of mine. And so having him work out with me has just been... Really lovely. And so I enjoyed that. And then the other thing I started is I started doing my additional minutes leading up to day 365. I'm trying to get in 365 minutes of additional effort. But I did 10 minutes of calf raises the first day. 10 minutes of planks the second day. And then yesterday I did 10 minutes of wall sits. And now I'm, I'm do need to make it clear. I'm not doing these 10 minutes all in a row. I am, you know, taking breaks because
Ashley describes a personal challenge she started to accumulate 365 extra minutes of effort, doing 10-minute sessions of calf raises, planks, and wall sits across three days — with breaks, not all in a row.
I can't handle 10 straight minutes of any of that. But my arms are absolutely killing me. My legs are killing me and it's a good hurt. It's exactly what I was looking for. It's a good thing. This is, this is good effort. And today I think I have to do a 10 minute. I want to say what I saw in my, my exercises was. a dance dumbbell workout. I got to look again. I pulled all of them and put them into a spreadsheet so that I wouldn't forget what I had to do. If you've heard this podcast before, you know that I put so many things into my calendar and so many things into spreadsheets and things like that to keep my ADHD brain in check. It's really important for me. But yeah, so I'm about to go into the gym and do Zumba and low impact cardio. And I will check back in and let y 'all know how it went. Okay, guys, I'm back from my Zumba and my low impact cardio and toning class. And y'all, I got to say, what I've said from the beginning
is still so, so, so, so true for me. Group exercises are what I need personally. Because on my trip to Pigeon Forge, I did work out in the gym at one of the hotels. And I did, you know, a Tabata class by myself. It sucked. It's not as fun to work out by yourself as it is to work out with other people. It's funny to me how fast the time went by whenever I was with other people compared to when I was working out by myself. It's just wild to me because I blinked and the instructor said, we're going to stretch. And oh my goodness, like. two hours later and I feel like a million bucks. I'm just so happy that I was able to work out with my people because I love, love, love working out with people. And if you're anything like me and you need group accountability, I want you to join me in my group. Please head over to famousashleygrant .com backslash group.
Ashley returns from her Zumba and low-impact cardio class and reflects on how working out with other people makes time fly compared to her solo Tabata session in a hotel gym in Pigeon Forge, which she says 'sucked.'
We are doing this. We are going to have a group and I'm excited about it. It's completely free to join. We're going to start it out simple with just accountability check -ins. And there will be a paid tier. I'm not going to lie to you guys and make you think that this isn't coming because obviously doing all this content, I do have to make money because this is my job. This is what I do for a living. So I'm giving you guys a heads up on that. And the free portion of this will always be free. I'm not going to ever change it to paid only. I will always have this portion completely free. So head to famousashleygrant.com backslash group and you can join the group today. And I'm really excited about this, you guys, because it's something that I personally need is accountability check -ins. And I want to give that to other people. I really want this.
I mean, I've said it from the beginning. I want this to be a movement of movement. And so thank you guys for the feedback that you've given so far that you are interested in having a group. I'm tickled pink about this. I can't wait to see what happens with it, what we're going to do with it. And I'm also stoked to report that my favorite instructor, Rhonda Good, is going to be showing up occasionally and doing Q &As and talking all about different aspects of fitness, the truth about all of the things that influencers are saying to us, and basically just sharing what you need to know about fitness. I'm so excited for this next chapter of the More Movement, Please podcast. And I just can't wait for y 'all to join. So famousashleygrant .com backslash group.
And I will see y 'all in there. Onwards and upwards, my friends. Have you worked out today?
Ashley announces a free online group at famousashleygrant.com/group for accountability check-ins, is transparent about a future paid tier, and shares that her instructor Rhonda Good will occasionally join for Q&As.
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