Hi, I'm Craig Washington; a Personal Trainer in Torquay, Devon. This week I'm going to write about taking the first steps into a new training routine. Getting started with training isn't an easy task. Whether it's just starting functional exercise around the home, in the park or at work. Or even choosing a gym and Personal Trainer to assist with your new fitness goals. The main thing you need to remember and remind yourself is; why you are doing it?
Set yourself distinct goals and targets that you can tick off along the way and make sure you are making progress towards them. Saying 'I want to get fit' doesn't count as a goal, and people who join the gym along with the millions worldwide in January to 'get fit' will never acheive anything. They will get jaded with their workouts and quit because they aren't making any progress.
That's because they never had a specific target in sight. If you say, however; 'I want to lose a 2kg in 2 months', this gives you both a goal and timeframe to achieve it. Then you can break down your goal into manageable parts. Lets take this target of 'losing 2kg in 2 months' as an example. You will now need to commit to a certain number of workouts per week to hit this goal. I've chosen this example because it's a common one my clients aim to achieve with me. You can break it down to losing 1 kg a month, and broken down even more to 250g per week. Although setting these smaller goals is important to the overall goal, they are not the be all and end all. Some weeks you will lose more than the 250g, and some you may not lose that amount or even add weight. This is due to the reaction your body has to exercise, especially if it isn't used to training so much. That's why the bigger goals of 1kg a month and 2kg over 2 months is really what you want to focus on. Just use the smaller goals and targets to judge progress. This has to be 100% commitment, otherwise the goal isn't really important enough to you.
So if you commit to going to the gym, exercising at home or with a Personal Trainer 3 times a week, that has to be set in stone as part of your life. Make it part of your life for those 2 months (8 weeks) and you will get results. Make the workouts a part of your daily routine, remember you do not have to be in a gym to exercise! Commiting to 45-60 minutes for a workout 3 times a week really isn't that much. It is a good starting point to develop your fitness and progress your goal once you have hit it. Alternatively, engaging in a 15-20 minute High Intensity workout every day is also another way of introducing training to your daily life, that can also have a great impact to your waistline and overall health and wellbeing.
Do not make the mistake of doing too much too soon. I've seen so many people in gyms over the years who join up, go to the gym 5-6 days a week doing up to 2 hour workouts and get exhausted because their body can't handle the new strain being put on it. Set easier timeframes like; 3 times a week and space them out across the week. Before work and at lunchtime are great times to exercise because it doesn't really eat into your 'own' time in the evenings. Also weekends are a great time to set aside that 1 hour for a workout.
But first things first; set a target for yourself and be strict about it! Set a realistic goal; overall weight, muscle size, waist size, an event (running 10km) and choose a timeframe to hit this target in. Look at the long term target (2 months or even a year) and break it down into smaller more manageable parts; weeks and days.
I will cover these areas in more detail in future blogs and talk a whole lot more on nutrition, rest, and specific exercises in the coming weeks. If you have anything you would like me to focus on please get in touch at fitness@craigwashington.co.uk or contact me on social media on twitter at @CWashingtonPT
Thanks for reading and remember to get in touch if you have any questions regarding your own personal goals. If you need a Personal Trainer in Torquay or Torbay and the surrounding area in Devon, get in touch!!
Thanks,
Craig Washington, Personal Trainer