Working out can help your spiritual health, too.

Working out is hard for me. It’s tough for me to block out one hour of a busy day, throw on a pair of tight leggings, and trudge my butt to the gym. Getting there feels a whole lot worse than leaving.

But I realized, within the past year, how crucial it is to get your booty to the gym. I let myself go freshman year, where I gained more pounds than I would have liked, and felt like a big bum. A lot of sitting and studying is not the best on your body, and the big change from high school certainly doesn’t help.

It wasn’t until I started working out with my friend Layne, and doing Kayla Itsines BBG workout, when I started actually feeling better about working out. I could actually see the results, which was huge for me. Results keep you coming back.

But if you know Kayla’s workouts, they are really stinking hard. I mean, sometimes I am certain that my body will not make it through her leg days. And in these moments, I was only wishing that there could be something to take my mind off how agonizing the workout was.

Music could only go so far.

Even though I was listening to music, I still was thinking about how much I despised Kayla for making me do mountain climbers, with push-ups. I mean, who on earth thought of this idea? Even though the songs I was listening to were supposed to pump me up, I still couldn’t help but think about when the workout would be over and I could finally collapse on the ground.

I knew I needed a change in my workout, something to make it just a little bit enjoyable. But I wasn’t sure how I could make this happen.

It was around this time that I heard one of my friends talk about listening to podcasts while working out. I hadn’t really heard of this before, but I wanted to give it a shot.

I decided to listen to a sermon from the Elevation Church podcast to test this system out. And it wasn’t until I tried listening to a sermon that my workouts completely changed. Ever since then, I have associated my workouts with a time to feed myself truth for the rest of my day.

Not only did I start working out for my physical health, but for my spiritual health too.

Listening to podcasts during workouts made them go so much quicker. I could hear amazing truth, while also doing some squats.

Now, every time I work out, I am also expecting to learn something. I would leave the gym not only feeling physically rejuvenated but also ready to take on my day.

When you’re working out next, try out listening to any one of these Apple Podcasts, and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

Some sermons I love to listen to during my workouts:

1. Elevation Church with Steven Furtick: This North Carolina church has a weekly podcast where they stream the sermons, and I typically listen to the podcast on iTunes. Their online viewership is so large that they’ve actually given named it as their “e-fam”. When I am not working out, I will look these up on their YouTube channel. I am telling you, these sermons are up in the millions of views for a reason. I have learned so much about the character of God through this church and the Lord has moved through these messages to reach me. Also, Steven Furtick is just awesome, so there’s that.
2. Transformation Church: This church is led by an incredible pastor named Michael Todd. I found this church on YouTube through their sermons about living the single life. I would really recommend this podcast for spiritual growth. You can find their sermons on their podcast channel.
3. Crossroads Church – I may be a little biased because this is the church I go to, but I can’t lie that their sermons are flat-out amazing. This midwest church focuses on those that have maybe given up on the church, but not on God. They have all of their series on their website.
4. Grow Through What You Go Through Podcast – This is a podcast where women have share their stories and what they’ve learned. Some stories include freshman year of college, struggling with anxiety, or moving past people pleasing. I am definitely biased because this is The Honey Scoop podcast – but if you haven’t listened to our podcast yet, I’d really encourage you to hop on over to this link and give it a go.

I swear, trying out this method makes your workout go so much faster than just jamming out to some old music. Whether you’ve tried this method out before or not, it’s certainly worth the shot.

What do you do to make your workouts go faster? Comment below!