Fitness - where do you start?
Do you remember the first time you did a press up, a squat or a lunge, Or even a sit-up?
No? Then this blog is just for you!
First of all, let's talk fitness for beginners and what exactly I mean when I say this.
We all have different starting points, some people are built more athletically than others, some are faster or stronger, some of you take well to long distance running such as marathons whilst others find short bouts of sprint intervals more suited to their body type/shape.
The great news is, whatever shape or size we were born with, whatever our natural fitness levels and strength, we CAN improve them!
So you ask, but what if I'm too old to start exercising?
And I will tell you, again and again, that age is JUST A NUMBER!
What really matters is how well we look after our body.
This means -
- knowing exactly what foods and drinks we are feeding our bodies
- getting the amount of sleep and rest we each need to fully recover from bouts of exercise and even long days at work
- most importantly knowing how to monitor your daily activities and exercise so that you aren't overdoing it or causing a shutdown of the nervous system by pushing yourself too hard and causing stress.
Stress is one of the biggest factors that hinders growth and recovery
So don't go off the deep end and try to overdo things when you start to exercise, it will be counter-productive in the longrun and you will probably end up abandoning your plan as it will be too difficult to continue at the same pace.
It is always best to start as a "newbie", whatever age you are when you begin.
Imagine it as learning a new subject at school, we always start by reading the basics, learning and familiarising ourselves with the fundamentals.
Then after we have a basic understanding of what we are learning, we can dig deeper and start to take in more and more information, going more in-depth with it.
Reminds me of the saying "you must learn to walk before you can run".
My recommendation would be to learn how your body moves and which movements work well for you, and which movements your body has trouble with executing.
A very good example of this is "the squat".
A lot of my clients for example have great trouble with the flexibility and range of motion particularly in the hip flexors, to perform this exercise correctly and efficiently.
For people who are just starting out, we provide great "beginner exercises" to those who need help getting started with exercise in a safe and controlled manner.
And you can read more about the importance of exercise in another blogpost here.
Check out our video download below where we show you the basics of how to do a squat correctly, so you can introduce it into your routine.
