One of the reasons many people fall off of their fitness programs is due to the fact that they try to achieve their goals too fast. Starting a fitness routine has been shown to reduce the risk of chronic disease. More benefits of a consistent exercise program are; weight loss, maintain a health body fat percentage, improves posture, improves balance, helps set-esteem, improves sleep and improves strength. This is done over time and by staying consistent with your program. Exercise is one of the best things you can do for your health. To benefit from exercise you need to go at your own pace with a fitness routine.
Before You Start
Before you start any physical activity get clearance from your physician. You will be informed of any contraindications do to your fitness level. As you exercise many of these contraindications will be lowered by your physician.
Start Off Slow
Many people walk in the gym on day one thinking that the more time they spend in the gym the quicker they will hit their goals. Most goals are unrealistic and will not be achievable in the timeframe they have set. With this frame of mind they will either quit or get injured. Hopefully they will learn before this happens and they continue with their exercise program.
When you start an exercise program, you are more active than you have been in the past. You will see results. Your body is adapting to the exercise routine. Once your body has adapted it is important to increase the intensity of the workout to see continued results. Here is an example of the steps to take if you live a sedentary lifestyle. Start by walking 10 minutes a day. This is 10 minutes more than you have in the past. Go to the end of your driveway and walk for five minutes as fast as you can. Turn around and walk back. At first this will seem challenging. In a few days you will find that you are walking farther in the time given and it is not as strenuous. That is progress. Your body has adapted to the exercise.
To see more results start walking 15 minutes. Continue with this until you can reach walking at a brisk walk for 30 minutes. When you are exercising your goal is to increase your heart rate. Every time you are able to increase the time of the walk while increasing your heart rate you will see progress. You are becoming healthier. For weight loss be sure to start eating a healthier nutrition plan. You can exercise for five hours but if you consume more calories than your body has burnt off you will gain weight.
Resistance Training
Resistance training increases strength, improves posture, improves balance, increases energy and stamina, helps burn off unwanted fat, and helps reduce the risk of many chronic diseases. A resistance training program is a program with exercises using resistance. This can be done with bodyweight, resistance bands, medicine balls, kettle bells, dumbbells, Olympic weights, and machines. For Heath benefits you want to perform a resistance routine two to three days per week for 30 minutes a session.
When you start a resistance program, start with bodyweight exercises unless you are with a professional. The first couple of sessions should be to perfect the form of the exercise. You will not see the results you are looking for if you do not perform the exercise properly. Sloppy form will also increase the risk of injury.
Once the you are comfortable with the exercise per form it in sets of reps. One set is a group of repetitions. A repetition is the entire movement of an exercise from starting position to finished position. For example in your routine you might have three sets of 15 reps with bodyweight squats. You would squat 15 times then rest. This is one set. You would need to do two more sets of fifteen to accomplish three sets of fifteen reps.
Final Thought
