Introductory tutorial to fitness for beginners

Establish a fixed exercise habit and figure out the power generation mode of basic movements. If you can do these two things, you will have surpassed 90% of people who only went twice after applying for the card.

Don’t believe it, last year I helped three friends who had never tried fitness to get started. At first, they all clamored for me to give them a "three-month abs plan". The girl who turned out to be the most stable was the girl who only came 3 times a week and practiced 4 movements each time. Now, in half a year, her body fat has dropped by 6 points, and her waist has become looser when she wears jeans. The other two are in a hurry to put on weights. One took a break for two months, and the other gave up after practicing for two weeks because it was not effective. The card is still collecting dust in the wallet.

Speaking of this, someone must have asked, do you want to hire a private tutor? There is really no standard answer to this. I have seen too many people who were deceived by unscrupulous personal trainers and bought dozens of classes, and only took you to run for 40 minutes each time. I have also seen people who have learned the movement patterns in 3 classes with reliable personal trainers and practiced well in half a year. If you have enough budget, look for someone who has obvious traces of your own training and has national professional or ACE/NSCA certification. Don't look for someone who only sells classes and has a higher body fat than you. Just take 3-5 classes and specialize in learning the basic movements of squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and high pulldowns. The money spent is definitely worth it. It’s okay if you don’t have that kind of budget. There are a lot of reliable popular science bloggers on the Internet now. Jeff’s action explanations are all informative. Domestic Chen Kang and Short-Legged Little Carrot also often post corrections on basic movements. You practice in front of a mirror. Every time you practice, take a 10-second video and compare it to see if you bend over and buckle your knees in. You can figure it out after practicing two or three times. It’s a little slow, but it’s completely sufficient. By the way, there are still people who are confused about whether the knees can go over the toes during squats. Old-school fitness will require your knees not to go over the toes to protect the knees. Now the research on sports anatomy has also said that as long as the knees are not buckled in and the force is smooth, it is no problem to go over the toes. There is no need to be obsessed with such minutiae, as long as your joints don't hurt when you practice.

Oh, by the way, don’t just follow the trend and do five-point training. It’s really unnecessary. Muscle synthesis efficiency is high during the novice welfare period. Every time you train, your whole body will be stimulated. The effect is much better than if you only train your chest once a week. The first training plan I usually arrange for novices is very simple: first warm up on the elliptical machine or brisk walking for 5 minutes, then do 3 sets of Smith chest presses for 12 times, 3 sets of high pull-downs for 12 times, 3 sets of freehand squats for 15 times, and finally Do 3 sets of plank support for 30 seconds, stretch for 10 minutes and then leave. The whole process takes less than an hour. It’s easy to remember and doesn’t make you feel frustrated. Don’t make a plan that won’t fit on an A4 page. You won’t be able to remember it when you go to the gym, and it’s easy to give up.

Some people just started training for two days and asked me if I wanted to buy protein powder. Will drinking it help me build muscle? There are two schools of thought on this. Old-school fitness people always think that novices can get enough protein with their daily meals, so they don’t have to spend that much money. Indeed, if you can eat 5 eggs + 200g chicken breasts + a carton of milk every day, you don’t need to drink it at all. But if you are like me and eat takeout all the time and cannot get enough protein, then protein powder is just a convenient supplement. It is not a hormone. If you drink it, you will not become the "muscular woman" or "big guy" you are afraid of. It is really difficult to grow so much muscle. Don't be frightened by the rumors. Oh, by the way, don’t fool around with carbon-cutting boiled vegetables at the beginning. Who can eat them for a lifetime? Just eat normally and drink less iced milk tea and less cola, that's better than anything else. Several of my friends went to extreme diets at the beginning and collapsed within half a month. They gained 5 pounds by eating cakes like crazy, but the gain outweighed the gain.

Oh, I forgot to mention, don’t stare at the scale every day. In the first month of training, my weight gained almost 3 pounds. I almost gave up at that time. When I measured my waist, I found that it was 2 cm smaller. The T-shirt that was tight before was loosening up. Only then did I realize that muscle density is higher than fat. Gaining weight is actually a good thing. Just measure your waist, leg, and arm circumference once a month, or take a full-body photo for comparison. The number is 10,000 times more reliable than the number on the scale. Also, don’t always think that only going to the gym is considered fitness. If you don’t have time to go after get off work late, lay out a yoga mat at home, use two bottles of mineral water as dumbbells, and do push-ups and squats for 20 minutes. It’s better than lying down and scrolling through your phone. I used to work overtime until 10 o’clock when I got home, and I would also take 15 minutes to do a few sets of kettlebell swings. It’s better than sitting for a whole day without waist pain.

By the way, warm-up is really important. In the winter, I had a golfer who went up to bench press 80kg without warming up. His shoulder was directly strained. After half a year of training, it hurt even to lift his arms to put on clothes. It was really not worth the gain. No matter how tight the time is, you still have to spend 5 minutes moving your shoulders, wrists, and knees. You should sweat a little before touching the weight. You must also stretch after the exercise, otherwise you will have trouble walking down the stairs with soreness the next day.

In fact, there are really no barriers to fitness. Don’t stock up on a bunch of quick-drying clothes, sports watches, protein powder, or even get an annual membership card to create anxiety for yourself before you even start. Just wear your most comfortable T-shirt and sneakers, run downstairs for two laps, or do 10 push-ups at home. Get moving first. Fitness strategies that are more useful than you have saved hundreds of gigabytes. After all, those who can persevere are the ones who will get the results in the end.