Chuseok Fitness Staycation

The following article was written by Korvia.com contributing writer Jordan Taylor and does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Korvia Consulting or its partners

—

I should start by telling you, I only spent Chuseok at home because flights were not teacher-friendly and I wasn’t about to spend four times more than normal prices. I also thought about traveling Korea, but honestly, I was feeling lazy. We had 10 days off for the Chuseok holiday, so I decided I’d just chill out and have a staycation.

Now, if I actually wrote a daily diary of my Chuseok staycation, it would be about having multiple naps a day, completing many Netflix binges, and not wearing pants most of the time. However, for those few hours I managed to put on pants, I be up in the gym working on my fitness.

To be honest, I haven’t been happy with my fitness regime over the past few months, so I was happy to find out my gym would be open during the holiday. Having literally nothing else to do for a week meant I had no excuse for not going to the gym.

I belong to a brand new gym in town, and I love it.  It’s really, really nice! And that’s coming from a person who is pretty picky about the gyms they join. I love it because the equipment is state of the art and there’s everything I need to complete a great workout. Also, the staff members are awesome. They are not only super friendly, they are also well educated in the fitness field; each of them with personal trainer certifications from very reputable fitness organizations. The gym offers daily group fitness classes, and even has those odd Korean box saunas that I honestly don’t understand the point of. Another plus is that it’s never too crowded. Like any gym, it does get busier during after-work hours, but even then I don’t run into too many issues. This gym also has a super cool feature that uses your fingerprint to open the front door, because it’s about to be 2018, guys. We’re living in the future.

When it comes to my actual gym routine, I focus on weightlifting. I despise cardio with every fiber of my being, but force myself to do HIIT a couple of times a week, with the other days spent doing LISS cardio like the stationary bike or walking on an incline treadmill. I design my own routines, but I do take inspiration from other trainers on the internet. I will gladly recommend some of my favorite trainers and websites if anyone needs ideas! Over Chuseok, I decided to start a new fitness routine with a 12-week goal in mind. Starting a new fitness routine can be difficult. If you are on the inexperienced side, it’s not something you can just jump into. It needs to be designed with attainable goals in mind and balanced so it doesn’t injure you, bore you, or worse, discourage you to quit. Too often, people try to rush their goals, but 12 weeks is truly the best time frame to see real, healthy results.

So, despite that I spent most of my Chuseok being a slug inside my apartment, I was also able to set new fitness goals for myself that I’m really looking forward to starting and seeing what kind of results come from them. Not everyone is as enthusiastic about working out as I am, but I do encourage everyone to try and move around a little every day. It’s just like they taught us in elementary school – go outside and play for 30 minutes a day! If you want to read more about strategies to start a new workout routine, and the one I’m currently using, head over to my website now!