How to Work Out: a Beginners Guide
Starting to Work Out: 5 Easy Tips for Beginners
By Michael Fitch
Hello and thanks for checking out my blog on how to start working out for beginners! This will be the first of a series of three blogs I'll be writing to help beginners learn to workout, including tips for at-home workouts; no gyms or equipment required! Make sure to read to the end of my blog where I'll leave an easy to do home exercise routine!
A Bit About Me:
Since I started to focus on weightlifting, I've developed a great love and interest in working out. Past that, I've found that I really enjoy helping my friends and family learn to exercise as well. For me, there's no better feeling that seeing other people happy and fulfilled after a good workout!
Tips:
1. Start slow - gradually increase
I made this my first tip because I think if there's only one point to be taken away from this blog, it would be to start slow when you're beginning to workout. This is for two very important reasons: avoiding injury and burnout. If you go into a gym for the first time and try to max out lifting heavy weights, there's a good chance you'll end up getting hurt. It's best to start slow and with a low weight to perfect your technique before moving to heavier or more intense exercises. Also, if you're just starting to workout and try to do hard exercise 5+ days a week straight away, you're bound to get burnt out quickly. To avoid this, I recommend starting at 3 or 4 work out days per week at the most, giving yourself plenty of rest time to recover physically and mentally.
2. Find an activity you enjoy - enjoy your work outs
My second tip is to find an activity that you enjoy doing. Especially when you're just starting out, it's easiest to stay consistent if you're just doing movements that you enjoy - it doesn't need to feel like work! If you love music, try dance workouts or Zumba. If you prefer outdoor activities, go for hiking or biking. Or, if you're looking for a low-impact option, consider yoga or swimming. The key is to find something that you genuinely enjoy and look forward to doing! Once you’ve fit a good and consistent routine down, then you can start to incorporate more diverse movements that are maybe new to you or more difficult. Further, it can be very fun to get better and have more endurance for the activities you already enjoy doing (i.e. go for longer hikes, do more difficult yoga poses, do a local 10km race, etc).
3. Set realistic goals - track progress
As my third tip, I recommend setting realistic and achievable goals for yourself. Whether your goal is to lose weight, get stronger/faster, or just become overall healthier, it’s crucial that you set realistic goals for yourself after you’ve assessed your starting point. It’s also important to avoid setting goals that are unachievable or too far off without also having some short term goals. For example, you might want to increase your single repetition bench press max. If your current max was 135 pounds, you could set a goal to increase it to 145 pounds within two months. This goal is both short-term as well as a realistic and achievable; whereas if your goal was to increase to 225 pounds in just two months, you might would likely fall short as this would generally not be achievable. On the same note of setting goals, a great way to visualize progress is by taking progress pictures of yourself in the mirror. It’s both encouraging and gratifying to see where you started and where you are now which is likely to make you stick to your new workout routine as you can actually see the results.
4. Listen to your body - if it hurts, don’t do it!
My fourth tip may seem obvious but it’s also necessary to acknowledge when first starting to work out: listen to your body. Many people embrace motto’s such as “Feel the burn!” Or “No pain no gain.” While there is certainly some value to these sayings, it’s also important to know your body and understand when something is hurting in a bad way. Sometimes a certain movement or lift might put unnecessary stress on your joints, tendons, and ligaments. When this occurs, the best practice is to reassess your technique, lower the weight, or consider doing a different exercise instead. The last thing anyone wants is to get injured when they’re just starting to work out!
5. Find a workout buddy - working out is more fun with friends
My final tip is to find a workout buddy or workout with groups. This could look like meeting friend you already have at the gym, joining a group fitness class, etc. Working out with friends is a great way to keep yourself accountable and consistent. Further, it’s a good idea to work out with people who are at a similar point in their fitness journey as you so that you can be lifting similar weights, running similar distances, etc. Plus, if you’re like me, you might like a little friendly competition and having someone around to push you a little harder than you could push yourself on your own!
Thanks so much for reading my blog! I'll be excited to hear from you guys in the comments what you think about my tips and hopefully how your beginning work out journeys are going! Be sure to check back in a few weeks for my second blog where I'll delve deep into two other important considerations when starting to work out: nutrition and rest!
As promised, here's a 20 minute home work that you can do RIGHT NOW to get started! No gym or equipment required!
Set 1: Repeat three times
- 30 second wall sit
- 10 push ups
- 10 crunches
- 30 seconds rest
- repeat
- 30 second plank
- 10 body weight squats
- 30 jumping jacks
- 30 seconds rest
- repeat
- 30 second high knees
- 10 lunges each side
- 10 push ups
- 30 seconds rest
- repeat
Thanks for the great tips and the workout that can be done by everyone anywhere!
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