I often get asked where do I start from when it comes to exercise – or how can I get back on the bandwagon.
Whether you are a true beginner or you took a long break from working out getting into a routine can be hard – I get it. So the main thing you should focus on is to find your WHY.
Your goals don’t need to be anything fancy, like running a marathon or signing up for the next bikini comp. More and more people understands that optimum health is no longer recognised by the absence of disease alone; it has transformed into a multidimensional holistic process that strives towards achieving a balanced and fulfilling life.
Exercising regularly is critical to achieve that as it has positive effects on your mindset and your attitude towards what surrounds you. Hence your why can be related to maintaining a healthy body composition, getting stronger to allow you to carry out your daily activities effortlessly, future proofing your body to be able to maintain your lifestyle until old age, or simply about feeling better about yourself and life in general, which extends to being happy, confident, and generally feeling in control.
It is important that you start slow and pay attention to your form. Start with simple routines at low/medium intensity. Keep the sessions short to not burn yourself out and your rest intervals longer – 60/90 seconds. Dipping into exercise too quickly piling up too much intensity/weight can lead to muscle soreness and injuries which can have a bad impact on your motivation to keep going. It will take much more of your willpower to persuade you to do over and over again something that HURTS.
If you are going back to train after a long period of inactivity you will notice that your body will bounce back fast thanks to muscle memory, but nonetheless make sure you start gradually. Focus on good form even if it means slowing the pace down. Take time to do your mobility/activation routines at the beginning of each session to prepare your body and achieve better results.
Scheduling your workouts like any other commitment in your week is another way to succeed at keeping your sessions consistent. Like I mentioned before exercise shouldn’t take a lot of your time. Even if you only train for 30 minutes make sure you add it to your calendar and treat it like a non-negotiable appointment with yourself.
Now I know that starting a new routine from scratch or coming back to regular routine take effort if you don’t know what you should be doing. Following a structured plan can help as it will eliminate the mental struggle in figuring out what body part should you train or even what exercise to do. There’s lots of content on the internet and at times can be overwhelming scrolling through endless YouTube videos. This is why I set out to make it easier and cut through the noise offering custom programmes on TotalBody Studio. Go check it out!
