A Beginners Guide to Fitness!

A common New Year’s resolution for people is to get back into the gym and create a consistent routine that they can stick to. Getting back into the gym can be intimidating and overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Where most people fail is they try and go all out to quickly and expect results to soon. This leads to disappointment and burnout. What if I told you there is a way to create a balanced routine with fitness? In today’s article I am going to share with you the steps you can take to create a healthy and sustainable fitness routine.

Set specific goals:

Take a second and think about what you would like to achieve from incorporating fitness into your lifestyle. Once you have visualized what you want, write it down. From there you can begin to establish the tasks you will need to do to accomplish your goals. It can be as specific as you want it to be. Some examples could be; I want to lose 30 pounds so I can feel more confident in my clothes. Or I want to do more yoga/meditation so I can become more flexible and manage my stress levels better. When we have a clear idea of where we want to go, it can help us track our progress and stay driven.

Start Slow:

Before going all out on accomplishing your goals, I always recommend to incorporate movement into your lifestyle first. To figure out a consistent routine you need to first to see where you can make time for fitness. Then from there you can begin to establish habits that are sustainable. Some ways you can begin incorporating movement into your life are;

- Walk everywhere: The best form of low impact steady state cardio is walking. By incorporating more walking into your daily life you will see an improvement in blood circulation, increased energy, better digestion, and a faster metabolism. Here are a couple of ways you can start walking more;

o Wake up earlier: set an alarm 20-30 minutes earlier than what you normally get up, and start your day off with a 15-20-minute walk.

o Park further out: At any store or at work park further away from the entrance.

o Set reminders: Plan out your walks by taking a look at your calendar and set reminders for when you have breaks throughout the day to go for a walk, especially on your lunch break.

- Pomodoro breaks: This is a time management system that helps you to break up a workout into a small windows of time. An example would be breaking up a 30-minute workout into 6 x 5 minute sessions. Throughout the day you can make little 5-minute time windows where you can complete a small workout. Here is an example of a workout:

o Set a timer for 5 minutes and complete these exercises:

§ Jumping jacks (20 reps)

§ Squats (20 reps)

§ Pushups (10-12 reps)

§ Captain chair (20 seconds)

§ Plank (20 seconds)

Develop a routine (Consistency + Discipline= Sustainability):

Consistency is key to creating a sustainable routine. Creating consistency takes discipline, and self-discipline is developed through inner determination. The more you move the easier it will be to create a routine that you can stick to consistently.

Track your progress

To stay accountable and motivated to stay active, start tracking your progress. Set a time and date where you weigh yourself once a month or once every 3 months. Also journal everyday how you feel and where you want to improve. This will help to remind you of why you are doing this and help you see how much you have progressed.

Be Patient:

This is the most important thing you need to know when developing a fitness routine. Taking one day at a time and focusing on accomplishing one goal at a time. Results will come with consistency. Focus on how you feel when you move your body. Write down how it makes you feel to move your body and don’t pay attention to the scale or the mirror unless you are tracking your progress. Remember this is a marathon, not a sprint. There will be set backs, bumps in the road, and plateaus, but remember why you want to accomplish this and keep pushing forward. This is a life long journey and through it you can create the best version of yourself

Summary

Fitness is not all about how much you can do. It is about what you can do within your day to day life. I think the take away from today’s article is to set realistic goals, take your time, develop healthy habits, track your progress, and be patient with results. Creating a sustainable change can be hard, but with a big enough reason anything is possible.