My name is Marie Lucas and I am a rising sophomore at Towson University where I major in nursing. My boyfriend, Mike Crespo, just finished his sophomore year at Stony Brook University. We met at Baldwin Senior High School in New York and have been dating for almost two years. We share a passion for fitness and started working out together three years ago; hitting the gym everyday, rotating back, chest, legs and shoulders. Every once in a while we’ll throw in a cardio day – we’re huge runners. We are the couple behind the fitness Instagram account . On our page, you can find us posting daily on our journey to finding fitness!
We started our fitness Instagram page as a way to motivate others. Every day, we try to prove how much fun working out can be and how being fit can positively impact your physical and mental health. It’s the perfect platform to share workouts and nutrition tips that we learn along our way to finding fitness. It’s also an awesome way to motivate ourselves! Posting our workouts drives us to have better form, push out a few more reps and add more weight. Over these past few years of working out together, we have learned so much and felt we were ready to share our knowledge and help other people start their fitness journeys.
But it’s not just about the followers and the likes; our biggest motivation for working out is the way we feel after a great workout—strong and powerful. The gym is something we look forward to everyday because we set goals for ourselves. When you get a personal best or you do one more rep than usual, you realize you’re stronger than you have ever been (and that feels pretty damn good). Watching yourself creep closer and closer to benching a certain weight or being so close to nailing 20 pull-ups and then finally reaching that goal is the most amazing feeling in the world. We do it for that feeling.
We also serve as each other’s motivation. If I see how low Mike goes on a squat, it makes me push myself to go that much lower on my set. If I get a max, it inspires Mike to work that much harder to get a max. Sometimes he slides on another plate just to try to impress me…and it works!
Since we go to different colleges, not being able to work out together was really weird at first, but it didn’t affect our motivation. We both want to see what we’re made of and how strong we can actually get. Can we make our bodies into the ones we desire? Can we push past our limits? Thoughts like these help us keep our focus.
When one of us is feeling lazy, we just think about our long-term goals and how we won’t reach them by taking the day off. Even though we can’t work out side-by-side, we stay on track by working the same body parts and following just about the same workout every day. In the morning I’ll text Mike and ask, “Hey, how many sets of squats? How many reps?”
We also are constantly checking in, updating each other on our PR’s, mile times and maxes —motivating each other every step of the way. Sometimes I do that extra rep or add 5 more pounds just because it feels so good to be able to call Mike and tell him. Not only do we make ourselves proud but we make each other proud, and that is truly motivating.
Now that we’re home for the summer, Mike and I are back to working out together but as of now I am in a post-op medical boot due to a pretty severe metatarsal fracture. Of course this means I have some limitations in the gym but I am so happy that I have been able to compromise thus far and maintain my workout regimen… I’d go nuts if I wasn’t in the gym everyday. Mike has been so supportive, helping me find leg exercises to do and helping me move heavy weights around so I don’t put too much pressure on my foot. It’s nice to know that I always have someone there not only to motivate me but most importantly, to support me. That’s the best part about having a workout partner like Mike.
Starting a fitness Instagram has definitely helped us move further along our journey to finding fitness. Our page has pushed us to stick to our workouts, work hard in the gym and most importantly, have fun along the way.
Want some daily motivation? Get social + share using #fituniversity
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