You've decided it's time to start exercising. Congratulations! You've taken the first step on your way to a new and improved body and mind. There's no arguing that exercise can help most people lose weight, as well as look more toned and trim. Of course, there's a catch. You need to get -- and keep -- moving if you want to cash in on the benefits. This doesn't necessarily mean following a strict, time-consuming regimen at the gym -- although that can certainly reap benefits. The truth is you can get rewards from many different types and levels of exercise. Ready to get started? We compiled this beginner's guide to fitness, including definitions of some common exercise terms, about the gym and workout routines. Any little increment of physical activity is going to be a great boost to weight loss and feeling better. Your exercise options are numerous, including walking, dancing, gardening, biking -- even doing household chores. The important thing is to choose activities you enjoy, that will increase your chances of making it a habit.
The American Heart Association recommends at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity, such as walking, on most days of the week. If you're getting less than that, you're still going to see benefits. It's not like if you can't do 30 minutes, you shouldn't do anything, because you're definitely going to see benefits even at 5 or 10 minutes of moving around. When performing any extraneous you should monitor your heart rate. A way to measure the intensity of your exercise is to check you heart rate or pulse during physical activity. These should be within a target range during different levels of intensity.
Anyone with major health risks, males aged 45 and older, and women aged 55 and older should get medical clearance, but no matter what your medical condition, you can usually work out in some way. After assessing your fitness, it helps to set workout goals. Make sure the goals are clear, realistic, and concise. Whatever your goals and medical condition, approach any new exercise regimen with caution. Start low and go slow! Many beginners make the mistake of starting out too aggressively, only to give up when they end up tired, sore, or injured. Some get discouraged because they think an aggressive workout will produce instant results. Generally, when people go about it too aggressively early in the program, they tend not to stick with it over the long haul. What you really want to do is to develop some new habits that you can stick with for a lifetime.
First, before you start looking for the best beginner workouts and routines, you need to make sure that you actually are a beginner. You can do this be take our
Fitness Level quiz.
If you are, then a weight training routine that is geared towards beginners is definitely what will work best for you and it’s definitely what you should be using (as opposed to something more advanced, which would be terrible for you at this early training stage). But if it turns out that you’re not a beginner, then you’d be way better off using a program that is geared toward
intermediate or
advanced trainees. The first question we need to answer is: What the hell is a beginner? In general a beginner is considered as anyone who has been weight training for LESS than 6 months consistently and intelligently. And obviously, anyone about to start a weight training routine for the very first time is a beginner as well.
Once again, that’s 6 months of consistent and intelligent training. It doesn't matter if you’ve been training inconsistently for the last decade (or just in an incorrect way where your results were nonexistent). If you haven’t been following some sort of intelligently designed weight training routine for the last 6 months, then you are most likely a beginner, at least for a short amount of time. This also includes people who DID train consistently/intelligently at some point in their life, but stopped for a significant period of time. In most cases, you are considered a beginner all over again.Now that we know what qualifies a person as a beginner, it’s time to go over the proven guidelines that should be met by all workouts and routines designed for beginners.
One thing you’ll notice about most beginner workout routines is that they will almost always have a lot in common. Why? Because there is a very specific list of weight training guidelines that have been proven to work best for beginners. And, any intelligent beginner program aims to meet them all.
Whether you realize it or not, all beginners essentially have the exact same goals. Sure, someone might be more interested in losing a significant amount of fat, and someone else might be more interested in gaining a significant amount of muscle. Someone else might just want to get stronger, and someone else might just want to be more fit and healthy. Those goals are all fine and good, and any intelligently designed beginner program WILL make each of them happen. But, they are NOT the true goals of a beginner. See, the true goals of a beginner generally involve becoming better at weight training so you can then become better at reaching your other weight training related goals (muscle, tone, strength, fat loss, etc.). You can set your goals and objects here.Simple and plain, all intelligently designed beginner workout routines are created with these specific goals in mind:
Fastest improvement
At the beginner stage, these are the goals that are truly important. In fact, it’s reaching these goals as a beginner that makes those other goals (increased muscle, strength, tone, fat loss, improved health/fitness level) begin to happen rapidly pretty much as a side effect. Remember that list of guidelines mentioned before? Well, they are guidelines because they allow these goals to be reached at their fastest and most consistent rate. Take a look at our beginners practices and try for yourself!
