Tips for beginners to get started with fitness

There is no need to copy the entire plan of Internet celebrities/guru, first ensure that you can move stably every week, and then put "not getting hurt" as a higher priority than "practicing to achieve results" - if you can do these three things, you are already better than the 80% of novices who lose contact as soon as they apply for the card.

When I helped my colleague make a starting plan last year, he asked me if he wanted to buy L-Series first and if he wanted to sign up for a 12-week fat-reduction camp. I just asked him to walk around the neighborhood for 20 minutes after get off work every day in the first week. He thought it was too perfunctory at first, but he persisted for three weeks and asked me if he could add some strength training. Now he has been practicing steadily for 8 months, and his body fat has dropped by 6 points. There are indeed two groups of voices in the fitness circle. One group says, "Beginners need to lay a solid foundation. They must first spend a month learning movement patterns. If you make a mistake, it will be difficult to change." ； If you used to get out of breath when going up the stairs, don't set such high demands on yourself. Even if you dance to the video for 10 minutes at home every day, it is better to carve the habit of "moving when you get there" into your mind first. By the way, you don’t need to touch anything like L-votide, protein powder, and creatine in the first three months of entry. You drink enough 2 liters of water every day and eat enough protein of 1.2g per kilogram of body weight (about 2 eggs plus a palm-sized chicken breast plus a glass of milk). It is completely enough for your needs. The money you save can’t be better than buying something delicious.

Another mistake that many people make when they first get started is to make the ritual of "fitness" too full, and instead end up holding themselves back. I met a young man at the gym before. He showed up on time every day for the first week and practiced for two hours each time. He had full aerobic strength and checked in every day in the circle of friends. As a result, he didn't see anyone in the second week. Later, I heard from the front desk that he fell down the stairs after practicing and had a cold, so he never came again. Nowadays, there are many opinions about the frequency of training. The strength circle always says that novices should practice push-pull and squat splits three times a week. The aerobic party says that it is best to exercise for 30 minutes a day. In fact, these standards are set for "people who can persist for a long time." If you work overtime until 9 o'clock every day, don't force yourself to train 5 times a week. Even if you train 2 nights a week for 40 minutes each time, as long as you can persist for 3 months, the effect will definitely be better than rushing in every week and taking a month off. I also made this mistake when I first started. In order to make up for the plan of four trainings a week, sometimes I would be exhausted after get off work and still push on. As a result, my movements were completely deformed during training and I hurt my waist. Later, I changed it to 2-3 trainings a week. If I am in good condition, I will do two more sets. If I am not in good condition, I will walk on the elliptical machine for two laps and then go home. Instead, I have persisted until now.

To put it bluntly, the easiest thing for newbies to stumble upon is actually their judgment of "pain". Many people who have just started to listen to others say that "it hurts when you have practiced well". When practicing, your knees hurt, your shoulders snap and you have to carry it hard. As a result, in the end, you recuperate for half a year, and all the effects of previous training are gone. Indeed, many coaches will say that "delayed onset muscle soreness is normal, indicating that the stimulation is in place", but you have to learn to distinguish between two types of pain: if the muscles are sore and swollen the next day after training, and are soft when exerting force but without sharp pain, then it is normal delayed onset soreness, and just rest for two days. ； But if your joints feel tingling or popping during training, or even your legs feel soft when exerting force after training, don’t hesitate, stop immediately, and either adjust your movements or change training parts. Don’t hold on. Oh, yes, there is another point that many people overlook. Don’t wear sports shoes blindly. I once had a friend who wore canvas shoes to practice squats. His knees hurt for half a month after squatting twice. If you don’t have special training shoes, wearing dad shoes with thicker soles is better than canvas shoes or sneakers. You don’t have to buy professional training shoes that cost thousands, they are enough.

In fact, none of the novice fitness novices I have met who have persisted followed a perfect plan right from the start. They just took it one step at a time. If you are in good condition today, do two more sets. If you want to drink milk tea tomorrow, you can drink milk tea. There is no need to regard fitness as some arduous task. After all, in the final analysis, fitness is to make you more comfortable, not to add KPIs to you, right?