HOW A SPORT FITNESS COMMUNITY CAN ELIMINATE EXCUSES ⋆ FINDING FINISH LINES

In our sport fitness life, we are all navigating between reasons and results. Beachbody Coach and friend, Maria Trees, joins us today to share how finding a sport fitness community in running, and later through her home workout programs, makes showing up for yourself so much easier.

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Maria Trees has her hands full. As a mother of three, a military wife, a nursing school student, a marathon runner, and a Beachbody coach, she has learned how to dig deep and find the reasons why she feels compelled to keep showing up.

running: her first sport fitness community

Two women in a sport fitness community exercise in a park — Training is better in community

Maria began her love of running as a new mom. With a deployed husband and a baby who just would not sleep, she discovered that a quick stroll could bring her a few minutes of peace.

Thanks to Couch-to-5k, soon, those walks became runs. Before she knew it, she was a marathoner!

After moving from Florida to California, Maria discovered a group of trail runners who welcomed her with open arms into their sport fitness community. They even invited her to become a Brazen Streaker, meaning that she participated through running or volunteering in all of the 27 annual events held by the group! What an accomplishment.

She also discovered that running is more fun in California than in Florida. You can even run (willingly!) in the middle of the afternoon!

This sense of community held her. She found accountability, acceptance, and left the state of California feeling, for the first time, “Like a real runner.”

No time for the “no time” excuse

two women in a sport fitness community support one another in a plank during a workout

Maria is not here for the excuse that we cannot show up for ourselves because we are too busy.

She gets it.

Maria has three children, finds herself solo-parenting often when her husband is deployed, is enrolled in nursing school to become a lactation consultant, and supports her sport fitness community through daily check-ins.

When asked how she handles it when her clients tell her that they are just too busy, she gave the truth: we all have time. We spend it on the scroll.

When her clients find themselves without the time, she encourages them to re-discover their “Why.” Why are they enrolled in the program? What do they get from it? Why do they value showing up for themselves?

Why a beachbody sport fitness community?

While Maria was in postpartum survival mode with her third, born premature, was living in the NICU, she received a message from a distant friend.

At first glance, she dismissed the message as a sales attempt. Soon, though, she discovered that this friend genuinely cared about how she was emotionally dealing with this new life. Soon, they became genuine friends.

It wasn’t long before Maria took the advice of this friendly messenger and began using Beachbody programs to carve out time for herself as a method of self-care.

Enter: Postpartum depression

After Maria was diagnosed with postpartum depression and anxiety, this community encouraged her to show up for herself. Since she couldn’t manage a run with three children, she could do Beachbody workouts right in her living room after the kids were asleep.

Coaching and participating in a Beachbody sport fitness community, Maria shares her methods of managing depression and anxiety. This outreach is not only a service for her group, but it is also healing for her.

Who Joins a Beachbody community?

Maria considers herself so lucky to coach mostly “Moms.”

From women new to exercise entirely to marathon runners and triathletes, her coaching group – Maria calls this her gym- is full of loving, caring women from all over the country.

“It’s about being a cheerleader. A support. A friend.” says Maria about her sport fitness community.

Excellent for crosstraining

Many of Maria’s athletes use the Beachbody programs to fill in the gap in their training. Need to loosen up? Try yoga! Core strength lacking? They have programs for that. Maria is even available for nutrition advice.

No silent struggles in her sport fitness community

Athlete’s in Maria’s sport fitness community get together for more than just weekly Zoom workouts, though those DO exist for anyone who wants to participate, she also checks in with them for a mental check-up. She genuinely wants to know how the women are doing emotionally. If there is a way for her to help, she wants to know about it!

best beachbody programs for runners & triathletes

Maria believes the best three workouts for women training for endurance races are:

Barre Blend – high intensity, low impact, with incredible positive energy

Lift4 – short, effective workouts that are muscle-group specific

10 Rounds – low impact, high intensity, and great for working out some frustration!

Find maria

You can find Maria Trees on Instagram for more information.

Thank you so much for joining us today! Please don’t forget to share this episode with anyone that you know who could use a boost in her training life.

Does community play a role in your training? How? Let me know in the comments or send me an email at Sally@FindingFinishLines.com if a running group, spin class, bootcamp, or online community has helped your eliminate your excuses.

That’s all for now. Carry on, women of valor.