For years, cardio has been heavily associated with burning calories, losing weight and trying to “undo” whatever we ate the night before.

But cardio can give us so much more than a calorie burn.

In this episode, I'm talking about why I think we need to change the way we look at cardiovascular exercise - because cardio isn't something you do to make your body smaller. It's something you do to make your life bigger.

We'll chat about building stamina, improving cardiovascular fitness, supporting our mood and mental wellbeing, and having more energy and capacity for normal life. Because fitness isn't just about being able to complete a workout - it's being able to walk up the massive hill on holiday, run for the bus, dance all night, play sport, explore new places and generally do cool stuff without your heart and lungs filing a formal complaint. 😂

I'm also talking about future-you. We don't only want enough fitness to do the things we enjoy today; we want to keep travelling, walking, dancing, exploring and saying YES to stuff for as long as possible.

And the best bit? Your cardio doesn't have to look like anyone else's. Run, swim, cycle, box, dance, play sport, take a class — you get to choose the fun bit.

This week's Flex This Week Challenge is to choose three 20-minute cardio sessions and get that heart rate up doing something you enjoy. Come and join in over on my Facebook and Instagram and let me know what you're doing!

And if dance fitness and aerobics are your cardio of choice, there are LOADS waiting for you inside Flex by AMF, alongside resistance training, mobility and structured workout plans you can do at home or in the gym.

Check out Flex by AMF: www.annamartinfitness.co.uk/flex-by-amf

Real-life fitness for real life. 💜

Ever started work at 9am, looked up what feels like five minutes later and somehow it’s 1:37pm, you haven’t moved, your water is untouched and you desperately need a wee? 😂

In this episode, I’m talking about the bitesize movement we do outside of our workouts — and why it matters.

Going to a dance fitness class, lifting weights or heading out for a run is brilliant, but our bodies also benefit from moving regularly throughout the rest of the day. Especially when work, commuting and Netflix have made us extraordinarily good at sitting still for hours at a time.

We’ll chat about simple ways to break up long periods of sitting, why everyday movement doesn’t need to involve gym kit or a formal workout, and how getting up regularly can help us feel less stiff, more mobile and generally a bit more human by the end of the working day.

And this week’s Flex This Week Challenge makes it ridiculously simple: choose a song and use it as your movement break. Walk around, clean something, make a cuppa, do some mobility or dance around your kitchen while the bloke laying your patio wonders what the hell is happening. 😂

A few minutes might not feel significant on its own, but all those little bits of movement add up.

Because your workout matters — but so does what you do between your workouts.

If you'd like more workouts, challenges and realistic ways to fit fitness around an actual life, you can find Flex by AMFhere:

Flex by AMF

Real-life fitness for real life. 💜

We talk a LOT about motivation when it comes to looking after ourselves. How do I motivate myself to exercise? Why can't I be bothered to cook properly? Why do I keep snoozing my alarm instead of getting my workout done?

But sometimes the problem isn't motivation at all.

Sometimes we're just bloody knackered. 😂

In this episode, I'm talking about the difference between going to bed and actually going to sleep — including those innocent little 10-minute scrolls that somehow turn into 45 minutes of watching videos about goats we didn't know we were interested in.

We'll chat about some of the knock-on effects of not getting enough sleep, from appetite and food choices to energy, recovery and how difficult our usual workouts and everyday tasks can suddenly feel.

I'll also talk about why recovery deserves just as much attention as our workouts and nutrition, particularly if we're trying to get fitter and stronger. Sometimes getting better results doesn't mean squeezing MORE into our lives — it means giving our bodies enough opportunity to recover from everything we're already doing.

This week's Flex Community Challenge is therefore beautifully unsexy: set yourself a bedtime and stick to it — preferably without scrolling yourself into a goat-video vortex once you're there. 😂

If you'd like more support with building a realistic fitness routine around an actual busy life, Flex by AMF includes a full year's structured programme alongside resistance training, dance fitness, mobility and plenty of shorter workouts for those weeks when life gets in the way.

www.annamartinfitness.co.uk/flex-by-amf

Real-life fitness for real life. 💜