Making the choice to start a fitness routine as a beginner at the earliest is a great decision for your overall health and well-being in the long term. It sets the tone for the right lifestyle habits in the present that would give the desired results in the future. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get started on the right track to fitness and a healthy lifestyle:
Consult a Healthcare Professional: Before starting any new fitness routine, it’s essential to consult with your healthcare provider, especially in case of any pre-existing medical conditions or concerns that are bothering you. The idea is to get the right guidance on the right options and any specific limitations you should be aware of about your body and its functions.
Set Clear Goals: The most basic reason that most people are not able to achieve the lifestyle goals that they desire is because they have not set a precise lifestyle goal. A healthy lifestyle means different things to different people and has different parameters for different types of bodies.
Therefore, to determine what you want to achieve with your fitness routine, setting a clear and precise time bound goal is of prime importance. Your goals could be related to the precise amount of weight loss, better cardiovascular health, stress reduction, or simply staying active and feeling better.
Having a precise and a clear set of goals not only keeps you motivated and on the right track to a healthy lifestyle, but it also helps easily manage the challenges on the way, as lifestyle management is a long-term process.
Choose Activities You Enjoy: Fitness is basically a boring subject that involves doing the same set of exercises repeatedly daily. Doing this in and out over time, makes it not only boring for the mind, at the same time, it sends out wrong signals to the body and it starts taking things for granted and poses a challenge in the form of weight loss plateaus that are sometimes difficult to navigate.
Therefore, the right selection of activities for the fitness plan makes a difference. It is important that you select those activities that you genuinely enjoy. Whether it is walking, cycling, swimming, dancing, yoga, or strength training, the key is to find something you look forward to doing, as this will make it easier to stick to your routine and keep you motivated on the fitness journey.
Sometimes, it may happen that you may not see immediate results on the fitness journey as different types of bodies deliver different results over time. Therefore, the qualities of patience and consistency are of importance to see the results over time if the long-term goal is to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Start Slowly: In the race for fitness and a maintaining a healthy lifestyle, as a beginner, it’s important not to overwhelm yourself as being slow and steady wins the long-term race for a healthy lifestyle.
Start with low-intensity workouts for the body to get used to the same and then gradually increase the duration and intensity as your fitness level of your body improves.
A gradual and phased progression towards the fitness goal is importance as it not only gives an opportunity to understand your body’s strength levels and at the same time, increasing the intensity of the exercises helps navigate the challenges that lie ahead in the form of weight loss plateaus more efficiently.
To build up a comfort level for the body and for the body to get used to the movement, it is advisable to start with the minimum threshold level of activity that is required to maintain a healthy lifestyle over time.
The American Heart Association, a premier health institution, and an authority on cardiac health, in its guidelines for general health recommends, at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week.
Though the level of activity does differ from body to body, some activity is better than nothing for a beginner. The level of intensity can be modified once you get to know your body better.
Create a Schedule: Being consistent than anything else is important in the case of a workout plan. Therefore, it is important to establish a workout schedule that fits into your daily routine, with which you are comfortable. Consistency is key to building fitness habits. Whether you prefer morning or evening workouts, block out time in your calendar for exercise.
Warm-Up and Cool Down: It is always a better option to start your workouts with a warm-up to prepare your body for exercise, and finish with a cool-down approach to gradually lower your heart rate and reduce the risk of injury to the muscles. Warm up and cooling down routine can help improve the flexibility and maintain proper form in the muscles.
Learning the proper form of exercise: It is always better to learn the proper technique and form for any form of exercise from a professional or a qualified trainer to ensure that the body is in proper shape and the muscles are not damaged during the fitness plan.
Progress Gradually: Over time, doing the same things repeatedly, makes things boring even for the body. If there are no challenges to the body, it starts taking things for granted. Therefore, it is always better to challenge your mind and your body to progress in terms of intensity, duration, and the complexity of the exercises. This not only helps prevent plateaus and keeps your workouts engaging and motivating to move forward on the health journey.
Listen to Your Body: A healthy lifestyle is a combination of many factors and to lead a healthy lifestyle, one needs to understand the individual’s type of body. Therefore, you need to pay attention to how your body feels during and after exercise. If you experience pain beyond normal muscle soreness, it’s essential to rest and possibly seek advice from a healthcare professional in case the problem aggravates further.
Track Your Progress: On any journey, based on the destination or the goal, one needs to keep track of the journey to check the progress from where you started from to where you are right now. Keeping a track of your workout plan by maintaining a workout journal or use a fitness app to monitor your progress not only helps you achieve your goals faster, it also keeps you motivated to accept the challenges that come in the way.
Consistency is the key to success in a fit life: Being consistent is the key to success in any fitness routine and achieve the goals that one has set in life, whether it is a healthy lifestyle or any other goal. Developing a set of healthy habits requires patience, persistence and consistency as it a long-term process.
Therefore, it is imperative to stick to your schedule as closely as possible.
Remember that progress may be slow, and there will be ups and downs along the way. Stay patient, stay committed, and don’t be too hard on yourself. Celebrate your achievements, no matter how small they may seem, and enjoy the journey to a healthier, fitter you.
Strength training exercises, also known as resistance training for the body and the muscles, offer a wide range of physical and mental health benefits for the body and the mind. Here are some of the key advantages that strength training offers for the body as part of easy fitness hacks that govern a healthy lifestyle in the long term:
Increased muscle mass and strength levels for the body: Once the body starts operating in the realm of its natural body clock, the muscles and the skeletal structure of the body also start aging along with the physical organs of the body.
The primary goal of strength training exercises as part of easy fitness hacks is to increase muscle strength and muscle mass in the body to keep up with the natural body clock. Stronger muscles and muscle mass can enhance your overall physical performance and make everyday activities for the body easier once the body starts aging and depreciating with advancing age.
Improved Metabolism levels in the body: Once the body starts depreciating with the natural body clock, the metabolism levels in the body also undergo a massive change and the body starts consuming more and more energy, leading to increased hunger levels.
Building lean muscle mass through strength training can boost the resting metabolic rate in the body. This means the body burns more calories in a state of rest, making it easier to manage weight and body composition with advancing age.
Weight Management: A consistent strength training program at any age helps with weight loss and weight maintenance by increasing the levels of muscle mass and raising your body’s metabolism rates. It also contributes to fat loss as the body burns calories both during and after strength training workouts.
Better levels of bone health: Once the body starts aging, the skeletal structure in the body also undergoes a change and the bones start becoming weaker and brittle in density. Therefore, in the case of an accident, there is a risk of damage to the skeletal structure, that could lead to long term permanent or partial disability.
A consistent strength training program at an older age is more effective at increasing the bone density and reducing the risk of osteoporosis, where the bones become brittle and start degenerating. This is more so especially for women and older adults.
Better levels of joint health in the body: With naturally aging bodies, the muscles around the joint of the body, particularly in the lower part of the body, the hips, and the knees, start degenerating, leaving the bones prone to injury. When done with proper form and technique, strength training can help stabilize and protect the important joints in the body. This can be beneficial for preventing injuries and managing old age conditions like arthritis in the body.
Enhanced functional strength levels in the body: Proper strength training helps improve the body’s ability to perform everyday tasks, that are related to the joints such as lifting and carrying things, which involves the joints of the hands, climbing stairs or walking, that involves the use of knees and the muscles around the ankles or sitting and getting up from a chair or the floor that involves the use of the hip joints.
Better levels of joint health in the body: With naturally aging bodies, the muscles around the joint of the body, particularly in the lower part of the body, the hips, and the knees, start degenerating, leaving the bones prone to injury. When done with proper form and technique, strength training can help stabilize and protect the important joints in the body. This can be beneficial for preventing injuries and managing old age conditions like arthritis in the body.
Enhanced functional strength levels in the body: Proper strength training helps improve the body’s ability to perform everyday tasks, that are related to the joints such as lifting and carrying things, which involves the joints of the hands, climbing stairs or walking, that involves the use of knees and the muscles around the ankles or sitting and getting up from a chair or the floor that involves the use of the hip joints.