How To Start Working Out For Beginners
If you're starting your fitness program, it can be confusing to know what to do. If you're strength-building, do you go heavy with fewer reps or go light with more? You want to spend your time maximizing results and not be counterproductive. Here are some tips for working out for beginners that people in Winter Haven, FL, found beneficial. The first is simple. Start by becoming more active. Increase the activity in your daily life to prepare you for more strenuous workouts.
No matter what your initial workout is, focus on form.
Even if you're starting out walking, form is still vital. Stand up straight and avoid leaning forward or backward. Keep your eyes forward with your chin parallel to the ground. Relax your shoulders and hold them back. Tighten your core and keep your pelvis in a neutral position, neither forward nor backward. You probably never thought of how important form was when you walked. Now, transfer that to traditional exercises. You'll benefit from learning the proper form first, even if you only do a few exercises initially. Focusing on your form helps prevent injury. Taking it slower keeps you from overdoing it and developing muscles too sore to exercise for a while.
Write out your goals and how you're going to achieve them.
To get the results you want requires you to know what you want. You must identify it to write out steps to achieve it. Instead of saying, "I want to lose weight," you need to note how much you want to lose and pick an achievable timeline. For example, losing two pounds a week is doable, so saying you want to lose 50 pounds in 25 weeks fits that description. You then can create a plan. Include diet and exercise in that plan for weight loss.
Make your fitness protocol part of your daily schedule.
Change how you think about exercise. Consider your workout time an appointment you must keep. Schedule it at the same time each day. That helps it become a habit. It becomes as automatic as brushing your teeth or taking a specific exit to get to work. Put your workout on your calendar. When making plans, don't even consider canceling it for another function. You wouldn't cancel a doctor's appointment to go to lunch with a friend, would you? Consistency is the key to success.
- Include all types of fitness in your workout: strength, endurance, balance, and flexibility. Vary your workout instead of focusing only on one area, like running for endurance.
- Don't compare your progress to anyone else's. Men lose weight faster than women. People who were previously fit get back into shape quicker. Always compete with yourself for improved results.
- Hold yourself accountable. Most people can't do that. Having a workout partner helps. Our personal trainers hold people accountable, and one reason personal trainers are so beneficial.
- Always track your progress. Track your workout, recording sets and reps. Record your weight and measurements along the way. Use medical statistics like blood pressure if you're exercising for health reasons.
For more information, contact us today at Habitat Health & Fitness
Clients at Habitat Health and Fitness in Lakeland, FL, understand they shouldn't exercise the same muscles intensely every day. They know it's important to make time for recovery. If you're doing strength training, you should rest the muscles you worked for approximately 48 hours. That allows them to heal and recover. When you work a muscle intensely, it tears the muscles down by making small micro tears. During recovery, scar tissue forms to heal those tears and make the muscles bigger and stronger.
People suffering from arthritis often find it painful just to move. They don't realize that doing some types of exercise can relieve arthritis pain. Changing your diet can also help relieve pain. These two lifestyle changes can make a big difference, just as keeping a sleeping schedule and getting adequate sleep. Unlike many painkillers, whether OTC or prescription, there are no unwanted side effects. In fact, besides relieving pain, you'll have more energy and feel better.
Many people want to have a flat stomach or washboard abs. I hear that goal all the time at Habitat Health and Fitness in Lakeland, FL. You don't have to want washboard abs to appreciate getting rid of belly---visceral---fat. Belly fat is one of the most dangerous types of fat. It crowds the internal organs. It also makes toxins called cytokines that cause inflammation. That inflammation can lead to heart disease, increase insulin resistance that leads to diabetes, and link to colon, pancreas, and esophagus cancer.
Learning how to eat simple is relatively easy. It's all about eating foods with only one or two ingredients. The fewer the ingredients you have, the simpler the food is. If you choose peanut butter, it should contain one ingredient or possibly two. The ingredients should be peanuts or peanuts and salt. You can use canned goods and frozen food, as long as nothing is added, like sugar.
Many people start diets with good intentions. They want to lose weight, look, and feel better. Unfortunately, they often make diet mistakes that doom the weight loss from the start. Identifying those mistakes can help you avoid them and be more successful at weight loss. One reason diets fail is that they're diets. Instead of learning to eat healthier, people set severe restrictions. They may have a diet that limits food intake to cabbage soup or grapefruit juice. That type of diet isn't sustainable or healthy.
There are many misconceptions about healthy eating. Some people think it's going gluten-free or switching from table sugar to honey. While we focus on exercise at Habitat Health and Fitness in Lakeland, FL, we encourage people to eat healthier. It doesn't mean you have to give up all the food you love. It means you make smarter choices when it comes to food. Have a piece of fresh fruit instead of grabbing a candy bar as a snack.
Circuit training isn't a specific exercise but a way of doing a group of exercises. Each exercise is a station that improves different aspects of fitness. They work different body parts or different types of fitness, such as cardio, flexibility, balance, or strength. People doing circuit training go from one station to another without much break between each set. When finished, they start the circuit again. It builds endurance and strength. It's excellent for weight loss.
Strong core muscles help you move with ease and maintain good posture and balance. When you include ab workouts, you're increasing the strength of the core. At Habitat Health and Fitness in Lakeland, FL, we include ab workouts. They help keep your stomach flat, improve your posture, and allow you to move freely. When your core muscles are strong, you can bend, twist, and stand erect with ease. Strengthening the abs reduces the effort of the back muscles to keep you erect. That relieves back, hip, and leg pain.
Running is a great exercise, but if that's all you're doing, it's not enough. You need four types of training to be fit. You need cardio, flexibility, balance, and strength training. All of them play a vital role in your health. People often overlook strength training because they think it causes big bulging muscles. The fact is you have to train specifically to do that. It's hard for men to do and almost impossible for women. It offers many benefits to people of all ages, including seniors.