New to Fitness? These Tips Will Help Get You Into Exercising

By
Ariel H
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Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

Every fitness lover has been new to exercising once in their lives. Deciding to make fitness a part of your lifestyle is the first step, but actually implementing exercise into your routine can be overwhelming. If you’re looking to start working out, here are some tips to ease into it.

Set Goals

There’s usually a reason why people decide to start working out. Whether it’s to run a marathon, get healthier, or lose weight, think about your goals before deciding which exercises will help you reach them.

Discover Exercises You Enjoy

While you probably won’t find an exercise you look forward to doing right away, once you do discover it, it will make working out much easier.

Stretch Before Working Out

Many of us like to jump right in to working out and get it over with, but it’s important to stretch. Stretching helps prevent injuries and the best ones to do are dynamic ones that involve active movements. Ideally, your warmup should be similar to the exercises you plan on doing, but less intense.

Cool Down After Working Out

Cooldowns are just as important as warmups. After your workout, do static stretches, which involve holding a stretch for 30 seconds. Not only will these increase your flexibility, but you’ll feel less sore the following day.

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Static stretching…good or bad? . I see a lot of people static stretching before their workouts and being performed for a long time. The research out there states that static stretching has no short term benefits but might lead to long term improvements…SO it is not worth your time to perform static stretching prior to a workout . Research also states that dynamic warm ups are way more beneficial for increasing body temperature and performing movements that are specific to the actual workout…no more than 10-20 mins though! . What if you want to increase flexibility? . Not a problem…flexibility is an element that a lot of people (including myself) are missing from their overall fitness program. If you want to improve this, static stretching post workout or competition or as a recovery session on its own is recommended . For long term lasting effects, stretching should be performed at least 2x per week for a minimum of 5 weeks. Stretches should be held 15-30 secs (NO MORE) and stretches should be held at a mild discomfort (NO PAIN) . If you are using stretching as it’s own recovery day, keep in mind that you still need to elevate your body temperature, so light 5-10 mins of general activity is recommended! . . . . . . . . #staticstretching #stretching #warmup #stretch #stretches #prehab #rehab #physicaltherapy #strength #strengthtraining #strengthandconditioning #fitnessmotivation #fitness #fittoat #fit #shredded #aesthetics #bodybuilding #body #runnersstretch #muscles #delts #workout #workoutprogram #training #flexibility #rangeofmotion #flexibiltytraining #flexible #exercise

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Make a Schedule

In the beginning finding the motivation to work out is hard, so make sure you stick to a schedule. Over time you’ll see if you’re a morning or evening workout type of person, and after you figure that out, stick to working out at that time of day.