If you’ve tried starting a fitness routine and got stuck in an exercise rut, you know what it’s like to not know where to even start. There are so many aspects to consider: strength training, cardio, stretching and more. It’s easy to start hopping from workout to workout without much thought on the actual purpose behind the effort. Instead of thinking of your first fitness regimen as a way to see how much you can handle at one time, try thinking about it more like practice.
The goal isn’t to find the most physically-demanding workout you can survive; the goal is to establish a routine that gradually helps you improve the quality of movement, learn control, and still leave yourself some energy so you have that willpower to do it again another day. The easier thing to focus on if you’re starting out at fitness practice is actually building up something that you can consistently repeat rather than constantly chasing the latest fitness fad or trying out the newest trendy workout. A good routine begins with a simple set of movements that hit the basics: push, pull, squat, brace and cardio. This doesn’t mean you’re limited to only doing basic versions of those exercises. There’s value in sticking with the basics, especially if you don’t have time to work out with a fitness pro who can help you refine your form.
Try to make your short workout sessions as intentional as you can. For instance, you might plan to workout for 15 minutes, where the first three minutes includes a few minutes of shoulder rolls, ankle stretches, marching and bodyweight squats. The next eight minutes could include three different moves to repeat three times: squats to a chair, bodyweight push-ups with your hands on a counter, and a basic core drill (such as dead bug or plank). For the final four minutes, do some kind of light cardio such as walking in place, marching up a step on a sturdy chair, or marching while keeping arms relaxed and moving with steady breathing. This kind of brief routine can actually be helpful because it shows you that the feeling of working up to be tired is better than overdoing it to the point where you can’t wait for the next day to be over.
If you don’t have any guidance on your practice, there are still ways to get the feedback you need to keep getting better. Feedback, in this case, is more along the lines of breathing, posture, where you’re feeling a lot of resistance, where you feel awkward or if you’re having trouble maintaining form. For example, if you’re practicing a squat, pay attention to how you’re standing: where are your weight on your feet? Does your back stay strong or is your torso collapsing forward? If you’re doing some sort of push-up, is your neck taking some of that work? If you do some sort of cardio, how are your breathing patterns as you go through the motion? Don’t be afraid to slow down if you’re noticing that you’re doing something a bit awkward. This is actually where you need the improvement and where you’ll really start to see your form get better. Don’t let difficulty be the goal. That is where the form will break down and where you can start seeing more problems. Take a side-view of your routine video once in a while to compare and contrast how the form looks at the beginning compared to the end of the week. You can still learn even if you don’t have access to a fitness professional.
A common reason that people see plateaus in practice is that they’ve become so used to doing their routine a certain way that they don’t see where there are improvements needed. For example, if you’re finding the exact same number of reps or movements in each session getting progressively harder, that can indicate that you have to change something about your routine. The same is true if you feel like a particular movement has never gotten better. Instead of just starting to look for something new to do, change it up so you can really notice how things feel. Try doing a variation that only goes part way through the range of motion, or add a pause to see how it goes. Or, maybe you can do fewer reps and focus on going more slowly with the down phase of the movement. In the case of your cardio, for instance, if the last four minutes of walking for 40 minutes feels kind of flat, that may be because you’re used to it. Try walking as fast as you can for ten seconds, then walking slow for two minutes.
Finally, it may feel counter-intuitive, but one of the best measures for success if you’re just starting out at fitness is quality over quantity, not intensity. For a beginner, you may be looking for three 15-minute sessions, one long walk and a few minutes stretching during the week. Simple is often better when you first begin to practice. Consistently doing something simple will build muscle and get your body more acclimated than one really grueling workout per week. Over time, you’ll be able to see that you are progressing by being able to hold squats for longer than a chair, your push-ups are becoming stronger, and your cardio sessions are starting to feel a bit less exhausting. The important thing is to start your journey in fitness, but to remember that it is important to stay present when you’re working out as well. Don’t try to build a routine that you feel is too much effort to do. It will help you be more successful if the routine can ask for the effort from you in a way you can really give.