I don’t know if it’s because of the holidays (although I’m not really sure why that would be an excuse) or because of my impending vacation (not sure why that is one either), but whatever the reason, I have found myself entirely checked out during my workouts. You know the feeling… just going through the motions. One foot in front of the other. Lunge, squat, plank…. I can do it in my dreams… with my eyes closed. I make light of it, but it was really frustrating me… I LOVE working out. So, when I was waiting for my flight to Vegas last weekend I picked up one of my favorite magazines, Women’s Health, and found an article on setting intentions for workouts. It was just what I needed and took me back to my hard core yoga days (well, okay, maybe not “hardcore”). The take away message of the article was that often having an “intention” or “purpose” for a work-out can keep you focused and mindful through the activity (which is the essence of yoga). I’ve been trying it over the past 5 days with various intentions (Saturday was “to feel rejuvenated,” yesterday was to feel “stronger”) and I find that when I start to wander into a state of mindlessness, repeating my intention, or mantra, gets me right back in the game! I also decided to incorporate some new core moves into my workout yesterday. Since the theme was “strength” I decided to really work the core… an area that I feel helps me to feel my strongest. Check out these core exercises I found from Women’s Health (images compliments of the magazine too!).