What’s your New Year’s resolution? Let me guess… to workout more?

Am I right? I thought so.

My friend Andrew Gavigan has been a personal trainer for 11 years and helped me put together this list of workout routines for women.

Do you want to know what the best part is? They will keep you motivated because you will be changing up your workout!

Andrew told me,

“The most important part of your fitness routine is as follows: show up. It doesn’t matter what products are available if you don’t use them. It doesn’t matter which new fancy gym opened nearby if you don’t go. When you find whatever keeps you going, it’s scientifically guaranteed to work.”

For me, the hardest part is staying motivated. I know many others are in the same situation. To fix that I’m doing two things.

[bctt tweet=”When you find whatever keeps you going, it’s scientifically guaranteed to work. #workout” username=”@MediaMaven_CN”]

One: I paid for a gym membership for two years upfront. I hate wasting money, so if I don’t go a few times a week for the next two years, it’ll be a waste of money.

Two: I find new, interesting, and popular ways to exercise so I don’t get stuck doing the same thing over and over again.

5 Motivating Workout Routines for Women

1. Obstacle Course Racing

Mud runs, themed races, and Ninja Warrior courses have gained enormous popularity over the past few years and are still going strong. Spartan Race, The Color Run, and the American Ninja Warrior TV show have all had a hand in the growth and success of Obstacle Course Racing, or OCR.

2. Sledgehammer Workouts

Sledgehammer workouts are near and dear to Andrew’s heart. Mainly because nothing feels more dominant, stress relieving, and effective as swinging a hammer, but also because he invented a more convenient fitness version of a sledge called the MostFit Core Hammer that is used in gyms, garages, and training facilities.

Swinging sledgehammers against a large tire has been a popular practice at Crossfit gyms and personal training centers. The Core Hammer is a little more user-friendly because it’s made of a round, urethane head that can be hit directly on the ground. No tire needed!

Swinging a sledgehammer provides a great cardio challenge, forces you to use your core muscles and upper body, and if done right engages your glutes and thighs. But, more importantly, it helps to wash away some of those daily stresses and makes you feel like a boss! A lady boss.

3. Indoor Rock Climbing

Indoor rock climbing gyms have become increasingly popular over the last few years. Now, you can find an indoor climbing facility almost anywhere you go.

Rock climbing might sound dangerous, but an indoor facility is a very safe way to learn the skills and safety protocols of rock climbing while you get a truly unique workout.

Climbing obviously challenges your arms and grip strength but the vertical “ballet” requires an enormous amount of core, quads, and hamstrings in order make it through a route.

If you graduate to outdoor climbing (not me!) you get the added benefit of hiking and nature.

4. Cardio and Resistance Classes

Aerobic and strength training classes are nothing new and every year there’s a hip new studio with a unique approach. (So fun!) Andrew suggests a combination of cardio and strength training gyms like Orange Theory, Pulse Fitness, and Barry’s Bootcamp provide a combination of cardio training, on a treadmill or rowing machine, and strength training with dumbbells, resistance tubes, and suspensions straps.

Not only is cross training like this an efficient way to gain strength and maintain a healthy metabolism, it will keep you interested and motivated. If weight lifting for an hour is boring, or you can’t stand walking on a treadmill for an entire workout, then this is the way to go.

5. Stability Training

Another one of Andrew’s favorite methods of exercise, stability training, can provide a fun, healthy challenge while taking a detour from the same old routine.

Where you might usually do a bodyweight squat on solid ground, try to squat on an unstable surface like a BOSU. Where you might lift a weighted bar overhead, try to suspend weights with SYN Rings or use an ActivMotion Bar.

Adding a wobbly surface or a destabilized weight will engage your secondary/stabilizer muscles, your primary muscles will still be put to the test, and your heart rate will get a kick too. Even doing something as simple as a bicep curl standing on one leg instead of two might be enough to provide you with a whole new experience and results.

There are endless amounts of workout routines for women. The good news is… they all work! YOU are the variable that makes a workout successful. In other words; a dumbbell can’t make you fit… you using it is what really works.

Andrew Gavigan CFT/CYT is an 11 year veteran in the fitness industry with a focus on corporate wellness services, portable fitness equipment, and fitness accessibility. He is the founder of both MostFit, the creator of the MostFit Core Hammer, SYN Rings, and Onyx Board, and AGF Wellness – a corporate wellness services provider for a number of companies in the greater L.A. area.

I’m required to disclose a relationship between my blog and MostFit. This could include me being provided with content, product, access, service or other forms of payment.