Beginners Guide to Fitness

This beginners guide to fitness will help you begin a long term fitness plan explaining what exercise you should do, how much you should do and staying committed to your goals.

Benefits of getting fit

Beginning a program of fitness has many different positives benefiting your physical and mental health. Exercising regularly can greatly reduce the likelihood of developing heart disease and some forms of cancers. Also by increasing your physical activity you will lower your weight making you feel more confident and ultimately help you live longer. The mental benefits of exercise are often understated. Improved mood making you feel better and also experience better sleep. You’ve heard that saying, ‘healthy mind,, healthy body’. Well, by exercising you will experience an improved state of being in both your body and mind.

Setting your goals

Your reasons for starting a program of fitness may be mentioned above or you may have other reasons. The fact that you are reading this means you want to exercise more and get into shape. This is an excellent starting point and will help you maintain sight of your goals. When setting your goals, make them realistic. If you’ve been inactive for some time don’t attempt to run a marathon. This is a sure fire way to failure. Instead set small achievable goals that are challenging enough to see progress and keep you motivated.

How much should I do?

The best thing to remember is that you don’t need to spend hours each day in the gym. This will only lead to illness and injury meaning you can‘t or you won‘t keep going. This is often referred to as overtraining. Many experts recommend exercising for 30 minutes 5-6 days a week. However, if you’re just starting out working up to 30 minutes 3-4 days a week is excellent.

Remember we are all different and how much you should do will depend on your current level of fitness. If you are unable to manage 30 minutes you should do as long as you can at a light to moderate level of exertion. This means feeling a little warm and sweaty and being just a little out of breath. Using the talk test is perfect to monitor your level of exertion. If you are unable to talk clearly you are working too hard. After 3-4 weeks you can work on increasing your time exercising towards the 30 minute mark.

It is always recommended that you consult a doctor or GP before engaging in any exercise program. If you have any underlying conditions they will help you find an appropriate exercise and level of exertion.

What exercises should I do?

Simply increasing your level of activity throughout the day can be considered exercise and will help you feel benefits. This could mean taking the stairs instead of the elevator or doing the housework more vigorously than normal. However, the most popular types of exercise are walking, running, swimming or biking. Remember it will be easier to stay motivated if you chose an activity you enjoy. These activities are grouped under the cardio heading and are relatively cheap to undertake.

However, it is recommended you mix these cardio activities with strength training, sometimes referred to as resistance training, and flexibility to develop overall physical fitness. Strength training often involves using weights in order to increase strength and is incredibly beneficial.

Ultimately you will want to do cardio work 3 days a week and resistance training 3 days a week with one day rest. For example do cardio Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and do your resistance work on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Remember this is what you work towards. Do not attempt this on your first week.

Safety first

Before doing any exercise you should warm up by doing light exercise for 5 to 10 minutes. The goal here is to increase your heart rate gradually and get your body ready for the stress it is about to undergo.

Consequently the workout should be finished by a 10 minute cool down, gradually decreasing your heart rate and stretching out your muscles. Warming up and cooling down with stretching will greatly reduce your risk of injury. Making this a habit before and after your workout as early as possible will be beneficial to your long term goals.

As mentioned above start slow and steady. If you go at it full pace immediately you will overtrain and end up ill or injured.

Consulting a doctor is always recommended. However, is more important to those who have an existing illness and to pregnant woman. It is not the case that you can’t exercise, it may just be that you are limited to what you can do. The doctor will be able to give you personal advice on what you can do.

Maintaining a proper diet is crucial to achieving your goals. This involves fuelling your workout by eating 2-3 hours before working out. You also drink plenty of water before, during and after you exercise.

Motivation

Staying motivated is one of the most difficult aspects when starting out. The best way to keep exercising is to make it habit. Time slots set aside each day makes it much more difficult to avoid than if you try to squeeze it into your schedule. Maintaining a log of all you do and tracking your progress will motivate you more and more and help you stay on track.

Equipment

Whether you work out at home or in the gym you will need a good pair of shoes and appropriate clothing. This is essentially all you need. If you wish to exercise at home following a book or DVD can be great to ensure you are doing the exercise correctly. There are great treadmills, bikes, and home gym equipment available, the benefits of purchasing can outweigh the cost of gym memberships and wasting time waiting on the equipment you want to use.

At this stage you should have some ideas as to the activities you want to do. Just remember to set realistic goals and work slowly and steadily to achieving them.

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