Starting an Exercise Program

Sets, reps, cardio, supersets, machines, free weights - where to begin? Getting fit doesn’t have to be intimidating; however it takes a tremendous amount of work. I know that’s not what you wanted to hear, but setting expectations correctly from the beginning is one of the keys to success. There’s no quick easy solution to getting fit. There’s no magic pill - no secret workout routine - no fast acting diet. Sure genetics plays an important role, but that doesn’t mean there’s no hope. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get started.

Commitment
It’s going to be more difficult than you can imagine. You’ll want to quit. You’ll get frustrated. You’ll get cranky and probably start to hate me. So why start in the first place? The rewards are worth it. Commit to the program and improvements will come gradually over time. These changes will improve all aspects of your life. You will develop healthy habits that will last a lifetime.

Time Investment
Changing years of bad habits takes time. Working out a couple days a week isn’t going to cut it. There are 168 hours in a week. You need to find 8.5 hours/week to devote to yourself to make a real change. 8.5 hours may sound like a lot at first, it is. Get over it and find the time. It’s there. I’ll go into more detail about what goes into the 8.5 hours later. Your first task is to figure out when you can work it in to your busy schedule.

Intensity
Simply going through the motions is just wasting time. You’ll need to keep the intensity level pretty low for the first 4-6 weeks, but then you’ll need to start cranking up the intensity and pushing yourself to improve each workout. Subtle improvements each workout will be huge down the road. They begin to add up and before you know it what once was “impossible” is actually pretty easy.

Age Excuse
Age is a factor, but not a death sentence. You are not too old to start. You may feel too old to start, but that’s because you’ve let yourself get out of shape. Gradually over time, you’ve accumulated layers of fat. Muscles have atrophied; your heart and lungs are doing their best to get you out of bed and off to work each day. As you age, every day that goes by is a day that could have been used to reverse the natural decay that your body is going through. Is it the fountain of youth? Nope-you’ll still get old and crinkly. It may be at age 70 rather than 50.

Nutrition
What you put in your mouth directly impacts the size and shape of your body as well as the chemistry experiment that is going on inside your body. Dieting is a short term effort designed to shed pounds quickly; however, the fundamental problem with diets is that they are short term solutions for long term problems. The proper solution is to change what you eat and understand the impact that food has on your body inside and out. Drastically cutting calories is a recipe for disaster. Your body retaliates against this method by slowing your metabolism down and storing more fat. Yikes that’s a one - two punch in the gut.

Injuries
Injuries and ailments don’t have to stymie your program. Certainly seek a medical professionals advice regarding the best course of action to properly rehab an injury. Many injuries can be treated by rest if the injury is an overuse or abuse type of injury. Rest doesn’t necessarily mean rest the entire body. If your shoulder is damaged, you can most likely still run or walk. If the knees are problematic, then cross training may help. Reduce the frequency of the action that is causing the problem and increase the frequency of a suitable substitute. Many issues come from increasing the stress on the body too quickly. You are setting yourself up for injury if you run 3 miles per week and then run 3 miles in one day. The general rule is to increase your workout by no more than 10% per week.