How to Start Exercising – the 3 comprehensive cornerstones
So, you have decided to start a fitness program? That is great! There is no arguing that exercise is excellent for your health, from maintaining general health, toning the body, to losing unwanted fat.
How to start exercising, you ask? Before you commit to any program, I would love to show you how to start exercising correctly and the simple basics of exercise.
Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.
The Dalai Lama
Tired of skimming through all the ads and distractions throughout this article? You can sign up for the Tippy Toes Blog to read the same article but WITHOUT the annoyance. Sign up today ヽ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノBe fit forever.
Summary
The Basics of Exercise
Believe it or not, researchers have studied and concluded different modes of exercise affect the body differently. You must understand the basics of exercise to learn how to start exercising and implement the regimes you can find. “Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.” – the Dalai Lama.
The exercise targets 3 parts of the body: heart, muscles, and joints. The name of your exercise type depends on your target. If you focus on the heart, you are doing cardio training. For the muscles, you can do both strengths (resistance) training and endurance training. To work on your joints means doing flexibility training.
In summary, how to start exercising, think about the 3 targets of exercise before you develop a plan.
Cardio Training
The most prominent characteristic of cardio is being rhythmic. Think about it, what do you do when you are running? Your legs are moving forward one way while going up and down the other way. Your hands and legs coordinate in a pattern. There is a rhythm to your movement. In essence, the body works like a machine when you are doing cardio training.
So, how does moving in a pattern help with your heart? It is simple. As you progress in that pattern, your body works harder than while it is resting. In turn, the heart has to work harder to pump out blood to satisfy the demand of your working muscles. Working harder for a long time strengthens the heart. Therefore, cardio training improves your heart’s performance over time.
Muscular Strength & Endurance Training
Onto our most exciting part of how to start exercising, STRENGTH! Yes, weight training has 2 classifications, named strength and endurance. The critical difference between the classifications is the desired outcomes.
Muscular strength makes your muscles bigger or enables muscular hypertrophy. Muscular endurance training helps with the number of times you can continually generate force.
When working out, how you design your routine, differentiate the two. If you want to bulk up, do muscular strength training by completing more weights, fewer reps, and longer rest time. On the other hand, muscular endurance requires fewer weights (up to your liking), more reps, with shorter rest time. The set is not a big problem when designing your program.
What are “reps” and “sets”? Simply put. Reps, meaning repetitions, are the number of times you perform an exercise. Sets are essentially the number of cycles of reps you do.
Lastly, do not mistake cardio and muscular endurance. Again, cardio primarily works on your heart, not your muscles like muscular endurance.
Wonder how to start exercising properly? Take this quiz to figure out the best type for you (^人^)
Flexibility Training
I have to admit, there is currently not a lot of research outlining a guaranteed way to do flexibility training. Many people often neglect this part of working out. But that is a mistake. How would you feel when you are toned by hurt every time you move? Or how would you feel when it is becoming harder to cycle through your spin class? Your joints desperately need maintenance that comes with flexibility training.
By its definition, flexibility training asks you to stretch your muscles until you feel a slight stretch. You should hold the position for at least 30 seconds. The method is obviously dull. Alternatively, you can try doing yoga to the same effect. It is best to train your joints every day or at least 3 days a week.
Related post: Why you should stay active during the quarantine
How to Start Exercising Summary
Congratulations on making it this far in the article on how to start exercising properly. I know the information above can be daunting. That is why I create this flowchart down below. Feel free to reference it anytime you find a new exercise routine and check if it is the right one for your body.
Now that you know the three cornerstones on how to start exercising. Let us get to work together! You can get a VIP Experience with me in Tailor Fit to flesh out the best way YOU can start exercising.
You can check out more information at the American College of Sports & Medicine for more detailed sources that I cited here on how to start exercising.
