Today I’m sharing a few fitness tips for beginners who are just starting on their fitness journey or coming back to it after some time away.
Talk to your doctor
Before you make any changes to your activity levels or eating you should make an appointment with your doctor. She or he can give you guidelines to follow based on your current health situation. Your doctor is the best person to talk to when it comes to figuring out where you should start and if there’s any health complications to increasing or changing your exercise.
Educate yourself
Your doctor is also a great person to ask any questions about how to get started with fitness. There’s so much misinformation online – especially in the health and fitness industry – that it’s important to get reliable information.
If you decide to go with a personal trainer, they’ll also be a great person to ask any questions that you may have. Not sure where to start when hiring a personal trainer? Check out this post where I share some things to consider when hiring a personal trainer.
Start small
It can be overwhelming when you decide to start working out, but it doesn’t have to be. You’ll be the most successful when you make smaller, more sustainable changes. As you achieve your small goals you get more confidence and motivation, and then are able to move onto more positive changes. As you build on the healthy habits that you’ve established you’ll be able to achieve more.
I think sometimes people want to make all the changes right now. It can be tempting to overhaul your lifestyle and make lots of big changes all at once. But that can be hard to sustain over time. It can lead to feeling like a failure when you’re not able to follow through on all of the changes. Making sustainable changes that make a big difference over time. It starts with small changes at the beginning to build confidence and momentum.
Be realistic
It’s very easy to get impatient when you’re just starting to workout. You feel like you’re putting in a ton of work, but 2 or 3 weeks in you don’t see the changes that you think you should be. From experience I can tell you that it always takes longer than you think for visible changes to happen.
Your strength training form will be getting better, you’ll be lifting heavier once your form improves, and your cardiovascular endurance will start to slowly improve too. Those are things that you can’t necessarily see but will be changing over time.
You didn’t gain 30 pounds overnight, and you won’t be able to lose that weight in a few weeks either. If it’s been years since you last went to a gym regularly, then it’ll take some time to get back at it.
Remember to include rest days
I know it can be tempting to go all out and forget about the rest days. If 3 workouts per week is good, 7 must be twice as good, right? Nope. Especially when you’re just starting out or getting back at it after some time away, your body needs time between workouts to recover. You’re asking your body to do things that it hasn’t done in a long time (or maybe even ever).
You need to include an adequate number of rest days each week to allow time for recovery so that you can come at your next workout feeling 100%. The amount and time of your rest days depends on the workouts, so it’s best to talk to your personal trainer if you have any questions.Any good personal trainer will be able to put together a periodized workout for you that will include both workouts and rest days to keep you feeling your best.
What’s your favorite fitness tips for beginners? Share it in the comments below.