How many times have you started on a new diet or embarked on an exercise program? Oh come on. Admit it! Your New Years Resolution list has had ‘lose weight’ and ‘exercise regularly’ at the very top for as long as you can remember.
What goes wrong? You are inspired by the infomercials and ads about people who have dropped 6 dress sizes in six months and figure that you ought to be able to do this too. But, it doesn’t work. Two weeks and two pounds later you have decided that exercise is boring and you just can’t do this any more.
The problem with the success stories is that they don’t tell you about the baby steps that are necessary to get started. It is important to focus on the first moves rather than the ultimate goal. Sedentary and overweight people risk injury and discouragement if they try to do too much too hard too soon.
Exercise physiologists say that you should “start low and go slow”. Don’t be embarrassed if you need to start very slowly, such as five minutes of walking a day. Really. If you haven’t exercised since you graduated from high school and have put on more than a few pounds, it is important to start slowly.
Beginning exercisers face a wide range of options: walking, low-impact exercise machines or working out with a personal trainer who specializes in working with the “unfit.”
Swimming, biking, exercise classes that are tailored to beginners and even a running program are possible (very slowly of course).
Exercise 101: Or Fitness for the Rest of Us
Many experts agree that walking is the best way to begin exercising. It is cheap, easy, and safe not to mention that you don’t have to learn any fancy footwork or join a gym. Walking is low impact and easy on your body and it is a natural movement that uses the large muscles of your body. It is okay to start out slowly. Yes, even five minutes of walking a day is a good thing and if you add one minute more per day you will be up to 20 minutes in two weeks. A pedometer is a good tool to keep you motivated and give you an actual goal. Start wearing it, notice your daily total and then start increasing it by 100 steps a day each week. If you reach 10,000 steps a day you are reaping some healthy benefits.
Minor aches or soreness are to be expected if you are unaccustomed to regular exercise, but listen to your body and back off if you experience acute pain.
Do not get frustrated if you do not lose weight or notice new muscle tone right away. New exercisers are more apt to feel the results before they can actually see any change.
If you are easily bored or want to add some variety you can try a stationary bike or an elliptical machine. Both of these machines give you a good cardiovascular workout without stressing your joints. As with any form of exercise you will want to start gradually. In time you will be able to add intensity and variety to your new workout regime.
Water aerobics or group fitness classes that are designed for beginners can make workouts a lot more fun.
Does running look a lot cooler than walking to you? Running might seem like a remote possibility if you haven’t exercised for years, but it isn’t impossible. Watch for a book called Runner’s World: A complete Book of Beginning Running that is due out in March and discusses how a novice can start on a running program. The secret? Slowly. Slowly. Experts say that you should alternate two minutes of walking with 30 seconds of running. Repeat that pattern 12 times. The trick is starting with brief runs and adding just minutes or seconds at a time.
A personal trainer would be nice but not always possible. The idea is to listen to your body. If an exercise feels painful or uncomfortable, lower your intensity and it that doesn’t help, do another exercise. Listen to your body and do not ignore any type of chest pain, pressure, heaviness, dizziness or shortness of breath.
Your Guide To Exercise
Any exercise, no matter how small, will help you, so keep at it!
The most important thing to remember about exercise is that you should pick something you enjoy doing first, and then worry about whether or not it’s the best exercise for you later.
The biggest mistake that most people make when they start an exercise routine is the choice of exercise. Most people start out excited, and they pick a really hard exercise routine to start out. They also tend to pick the type of exercise that is recommended to them, instead of one that they enjoy.
This will cause people to get sick of the routine within a matter of weeks and eventually stop exercising altogether because they just can’t find the energy or motivation to stick with the overly hard program they chose.
This is something that you should make sure that you don’t do. Any exercise is better than no exercise at all, so if all you feel up to doing is walking, then you should walk.
Study after study has shown that even people who do only twenty minutes of exercise as little as three times a week have better health than they would otherwise.
Of course, you’ll probably want to increase the amount of exercise you’re doing after a little while, but you should pick something easy and fun to do at first. If you like riding a bicycle, then you should start going on short bike rides every other evening. Eventually, you’ll probably find that you’re able to ride further without getting tired.
Once you start getting into shape, you might want to extend your riding time – or ride more often.
If you’ve already started exercising and you feel like you’re in a pretty good routine, then you should think about increasing the amount or difficulty of exercise that you’re doing. For instance, if you’re finding the time to go on a short walk three times a week, then you should think about increasing that number to four or five times.
You can also change the type of exercise that you’re doing if you’re getting used to it. In fact, this is recommended if you’re starting to get used to whatever exercise you’re doing. After all, if you get used to it and it becomes boring, you might not want to continue.
An exercise routine which trains all of your body is obviously a good one, so maybe you should look into getting a membership in a local gym or perhaps buying a body workout machine for your home. By getting a total body workout your whole body will feel, and look, better.
The most important lesson is don’t get discouraged. If you are in an off mood and can’t bring yourself to exercise, then accept that this happens everyone – it’s your body’s way of saying it needs a day off! But the important thing is to not let that day off become a break, don’t break your exercise routine for more than a few days or it will be very difficlut to get back into it.
Even if you end up not exercising for so long that you get out of your routine, that is no reason to give up. Just start exercising again – no matter how much or how little exercise you do, it will always benefit you. Whether you’re looking to continue or change your current exercise routine, or you’re just starting to exercise again, good luck!