u/pietrc

I’ve actually been trying to make progress in both running and gym. But since I’m doing a 1-month run training program, I decided to cut my gym sessions from 4 days to 3 days a week. Last week, though, I only managed to go twice. I was thinking whether I should switch to a full-body routine or just stick with my current 4-day routine and accept that I won’t always be able to complete all 4 sessions in a week.

I’m looking for advice on what would work better for making progress in both running and lifting while prioritizing my run training for this month.

Edit: I accidentally put “M 26” in the title, im actually 23! 😭. Reddit won’t let me edit the title, so I guess I’m 26 for this post 💀

I started going to gym around mid-September 2025.

At first, I honestly just wanted a distraction.

Work stress was getting bad, my anxiety was getting worse, and all the insecurities and low self-esteem I carried since college followed me into adulthood. When I started having a full-time job, everything intensified. I kept overthinking everything, doubting myself constantly, and mentally I was in a really bad place.

I didn’t expect the gym to help the way it did. At first it was just me forcing myself to show up. I wasn’t confident, didn’t know what I was doing half the time, and compared myself to literally everybody there. But after a while, the routine started changing me mentally more than physically. For the first time in years, I felt like I was improving at something. I became extremely consistent too. For almost 6 months straight, I rarely skipped sessions. Even on stressful workdays, going to the gym made me feel stable again. It became the one place where my mind would finally quiet down.

and something unexpected happened.

I got interested in cardio.

At first it was just casual running, then suddenly I got into trekking too. I started enjoying endurance more than I expected. I even joined an event recently and now I’m actually thinking about joining running events in the future, which is something the old me would never imagine doing. But cardio also kind of disrupted my gym routine.I went from being super consistent with lifting, hitting my PR every session, to having random inconsistencies because of recovery and fatigue. I even ended up skipping leg day for almost a month after overdoing one event and absolutely destroying my legs. I needed almost 2 weeks just to recover properly.

And mentally, that bothered me a lot because consistency became part of my identity.

But recently I realized something important: I’m not actually “falling off.” I’m just evolving into someone more active overall.

A few months ago, I was just trying to survive work stress and silence bad thoughts in my head. Now I’m lifting, running, trekking, and looking into joining events. That version of me from college wouldn’t even recognize me now.

This Sunday I’m finally going back to leg day again, and honestly I’m excited for it.

It feels weird realizing fitness didn’t just change my body.

It changed the way I see myself.