Getting Started in Your Fitness Journey — Any Level
Whether you are a complete beginner and have never developed a fitness regimen or are someone who’s experienced but fell off their plan, what’s most important is that you start. Your car can’t move without you turning the key knob, your PC won’t boot up without clicking the power button, your wife can’t conceive a child if you don’t… you get the picture. Starting is just as important as doing and finishing (sorry to my family members reading).
A huge mistake I see for any beginner in fitness is thinking they need to have all the answers before they do any ounce of physical activity. The key is to eliminate any doubts you may have before you begin your fitness journey — get rid of them all, they’re not relevant. If you are starting off in the gym it is worth your while to watch a few YouTube tutorial videos on how to perform exercises with proper technique (please comment if you’re interested in seeing them from myself). Otherwise, you should be jumping right in.
Why this approach? Think about the last time you followed through on a promise you made to yourself. Did you plan out meticulously how you were going to complete this certain task, or did you just do it? Were you excited to do the dishes today? Did you spend every last second of your day thinking about cleaning your bathroom last Sunday? I highly doubt the majority of you reading this article planned out to do tasks such as these, but you did them anyway. They needed to be done. Your approach to fitness should be no different.
The first time you perform any physical activity, you may not feel much of the benefit. Granted, almost anyone starting at the gym isn’t going to look like a bodybuilder or will be as fast as Usain Bolt after their first running session. However, little by little, as long as you exercise consistently, the true benefits will speak for themselves. With resistance training, you will get stronger over time, your muscles will grow, and your bone structure will start to change (for the better). By running, you will gain more speed, more endurance, and overall greater cardiovascular health. In an ideal world, you are doing some combination of both each week.
The question I receive the most often is: how many times per week? How many times should I be lifting per week, how many times should I be doing cardio a week? If you want an answer based on scientific literature, it will be anywhere between 3–5 days of lifting and 150 minutes of cardio per week. However, what I stress to anyone reading who is just starting off, is not to set these parameters right now. The reason is simple, these are just suggestions.
If you go to the gym once a week and only perform cardio for 30 minutes a week, you are already way better off than before. The key here is consistency. If you’re stacking these sessions up week by week, you are on an upward trajectory. Don’t get me wrong, to see meaningful differences in your body and health, you would have to up the frequency. But, if you told me you went from never touching a weight in your life to hitting a lift once a week and started doing 10-minute jogs every other day, I’d be tremendously proud of you. That is why starting is crucial. You’d never get to a point where you’re wondering which workout splits you should follow or which running shoes are best for performance if you never gave either activity a shot.
Let me end off by saying that weight training and running are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to exercise. The truth is, if you absolutely can’t stand either activity, you aren’t going to do it, no matter how hard you try. That is why I always advocate doing what is fun for you. Don’t like the gym but enjoy rock climbing? Have at it. Hate running but love playing Tennis? By all means, swing that racquet. It’s far more paramount that you get into a rhythm with a fitness activity that you enjoy than forcing yourself to do something you’ll end up quitting in a few weeks.
Lastly, if you’re wondering which activity is best for you, then experiment and figure out what works best for you. This may sound ironic but don’t blindly follow what people are saying works for them because they’re their own person. When in doubt, start with walks. Assuming you don’t already, aim for about 4000 -7000 steps a day. This is very easy to hit if you walk 10–20 minutes after each meal. This is not true exercise, but it is infinitely better than none.
Remember, everybody’s experience will be different. Today, I can’t fathom a week where I didn’t hit the weights at least 4 times, and yet, when I just started going to the gym, I hated it. In fact, I had a 3-year phase in my life where I would be in and out of the gym, never going more than 2 months consistently. What really helped me was following a plan (which I will cover in a future article) and getting to the gym. Yes, I mean that in a literal sense; getting to the gym was the hardest part. The workouts were sometimes lackluster, but they weren’t the issue, the biggest challenge was showing up. That is what I challenge you to do. First off, start. Next, keep showing up. Whether it is once a week or every day. Keep showing up, and soon enough exercise will become second nature to you like it has for me.
If you enjoyed this article, please give it a clap and leave a comment below. I appreciate any feedback and if you have a question about the above or general fitness questions, I am happy to help.