Building up Your Fitness

There are many great reasons to exercise, from improving energy, mood, sleep, and health to reducing anxiety, stress, and depression. Its primary benefits, however, include helping you achieve and maintain a healthy body weight^[1] and muscle mass and reducing your risk for chronic diseases.^[2]

It’s no wonder then, that the most common New Year’s Resolution is to ‘get fit’. But how do you start when you have previously lived a sedentary lifestyle?

Before you start an exercise program, it is wise to consult your doctor if you have any pre-existing medical conditions or are particularly out of shape. Ask about any changes to your medications or concerns in becoming more active.

Mindset and exercise

Studies^[3] show mindset plays a pivotal role in how you view yourself, your physical abilities, as well as your training results. Often, the biggest hurdle between you and your fitness goals may be your own thinking. The decision between giving up and keeping at it is made by a person’s mindset, making it a key component of success and achievement.

Here are a few ways to improve your mindset for continuous progress on your fitness journey:

1. Visualise success

Form a strong visual of your goals. Think deeply about what you want to achieve. Embed this into your subconscious and your body will be pre-programmed to follow.

2. Think positively

Develop an enthusiastic and positive approach towards every workout. Even when it is not easy, try to embrace the process, knowing that it is bringing you closer to your goals.

3. Use the aggression

Channel all your pent-up emotions and all the frustrations you’re holding on to into every rep of every set.

4. Focus

Your time to exercise is your ‘me time’ and you shouldn’t waste any of it. During movement, concentrate on what you’re doing. Forge the mind and muscle connection and focus on the move.

5. Embrace the journey

If a workout does not go as planned, don’t let that demotivate you. Remember that you’re on a journey. Move on to the next set or refocus for your next workout.

When you work with a personal trainer, they will not just support your training physically, but will also help you to keep your mindset focussed.

Starting an exercise programme

If you haven’t worked out for a while or ever, it’s important to start slowly. A goal of exercising for 30 minutes a day, 5 times a week may sound good. But how likely are you to follow through? The more ambitious your goal, the more likely you are to fail, feel bad about it, and give up. It’s better to start with easy exercise goals you know you can achieve. As you meet them, you’ll build self-confidence and momentum. Then you can move on to more challenging goals.

The key to being successful and safe when beginning an exercise program is to build slowly from your current fitness level. Over-exercising can cause injury, which may lead to quitting. A steady rate of progress is the best approach.

If you are overweight or obese, taking up exercise can place great strain on your joints, particularly the articulating surface, the cartilage surface of bones that contact each other. So, hips, knees and ankles can become inflamed and painful. Exercise in water or using a stationary exercise bike or rowing machine to minimise the weight on your joints to start with. Once you’ve lost some weight and your cardiovascular function has improved you can add more weight bearing exercises to your program.

Steps for building up fitness

Anyone starting a new fitness plan should start slowly with low-intensity exercises.

Be sure to warm up before exercising and cool down afterwards.

Drink water before, during and after your exercise session. Water helps fuel your muscles, so drinking before, during and after exercise will boost your energy levels, and may help to prevent cramp.

Wear appropriate clothes and trainers to help avoid injury.

Document your starting point, i.e., what the activity was, how long you did it for, what weight you used and number of repetitions (if applicable).

Remember to take as many breaks as you need.

The more you follow your fitness program, the easier the exercises will become. You will become less tired, less out of breath or, if you are using weights, you will find lifting them easier. This is when you should increase the intensity and duration of your workouts. You can increase the number of repetitions or increase the weights you are lifting.

Don’t run before you can walk, be realistic and take small steps. For example, jumping from 10 minutes to 30 minutes before you are ready can be detrimental physically and mentally if you cannot meet the jump. Instead, go for smaller increments and record each change.

If you are serious about making changes to your health and physique, a personal trainer is more cost effective than a gym membership or a diet club. You will learn what is right for you and will be accountable – no skipping sessions when you just aren’t feeling like it. You will be given a bespoke program and all the support you need to help you on the way to meeting your fitness goals.

If you would like to work with me get in touch and book your free complimentary 90 minute session.