Hey guys. Glad you’re here with me today. Let’s discuss fitness for a moment. A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about “What Bothers Me About Fitness Culture”. Now while there’s some toxicity and bullshit around fitness culture, it is an inherently positive part of my life and the lives of many others. Fitness and exercise are things that can enhance your life and wellbeing dramatically. So today I want to give some helpful information for anyone wanting to get started on their fitness journey, or those who just want to take some helpful tips or reminders for the road.
First of all, there’s a lot that goes into forming a healthy relationship with fitness or beginning a lifestyle in which fitness plays a big role. I want to divide this post into three core categories that must be considered when starting a fitness journey: exercise, nutrition, and mindset. These three elements influence fitness, and the approaches you take in each will determine whether fitness becomes a part of your lifestyle or whether it’s something only used for short-term gain.
So let’s begin—here is everything you need to know to start your fitness journey:
Exercise
Exercise is a major component of fitness and exceptionally important for both physical and overall wellbeing. Exercise strengthens the heart, improving cardiovascular fitness, lowers the risk of disease, strengthens bones and muscles, enhances immune function, improves sleep, boosts mood, relieves stress, and enhances brain function. So, as we can see, there are many benefits to having exercise be a part of our daily lives. But how do we begin, and what do we need to know before we get started?
Find the time:
Before we can commit to exercising, we need to find times during the week that we can fit movement into our schedule. To make movement and fitness a part of our lifestyle, we must first make it a habit. To make it a habit, we exercise regularly and work it into our daily routines. Take a realistic look at your calendar or weekly schedule and see what times would be most convenient to get a workout in. Then schedule that into your day. It doesn’t have to be a massive time block or take hours out of your day either, just as long as you move your body a little bit each day. This could be in the morning before work, a walk during your lunch break, or an after-work gym session. You could also walk or bike to work or errands as a way to get active during the day. Just whatever’s possible and most convenient for you.
Choosing a program or routine that you enjoy:
Another important consideration when beginning your fitness journey is what sort of workouts or exercises you want to do. The most important factor here is that it be something you enjoy. Whether you choose to invest in a gym membership or stick to at-home workouts doesn’t matter. Both forms of activity are effective, and it’s really up to the individual to choose what they like best. Fitness routines could range from lifting and cardio at a gym, to yoga, Pilates, and cycling classes at a studio, to hikes in the woods, or just a simple walk around the block.
Explore different workouts and activities to find what you enjoy best. Don’t put yourself in a box either. You can dabble in all kinds of different activities and don’t necessarily have to stick with just one thing. It’s more beneficial to vary the kinds of exercise that you do. This ensures a more well-rounded approach and works your body in a multitude of ways. Adding variety to your movement can also reduce the risk of injury, work different muscle groups, help improve progress, promote engagement, and prevent boredom.
While all movement is good movement, a combination of cardio and weightlifting is typically recommended. This is because, in tandem, they offer distinct and complementary benefits. For example, cardio improves your endurance and strengthens the cardiovascular system while weightlifting builds muscle, boosts metabolism, and increases bone density. Combining both of these methods of training is beneficial because it improves overall fitness, reduces the risk of injury, and enhances aspects of physical and mental health.
Listening to your body:
The next thing that’s important to know when beginning a fitness journey is that it’s essential to work at your own pace and listen to your body. You shouldn’t be pushing through discomfort or fatigue, but rather be mindful of the signals your body gives you and adjust your workouts accordingly. Some days, you may be full of energy and want to adjust to run longer, lift heavier, or push yourself harder. Other days, you may feel slow to start or unmotivated, and in those scenarios, sometimes a low-resistance workout may serve your body better. And lastly, the days your body feels fatigued, exhausted, and in need of some rest, the best workout may be no workout at all. Or as Coach Bennett says: “Sometimes the best run is no run at all”. He’s so handsome. Besides the point. Anyway, that brings us well into the next point:
Rest and recovery:
Rest and recovery will be crucial for your fitness journey. Rest days allow your body to repair and rebuild. They help prevent overuse injuries and improve performance. Adequate rest is needed for muscle growth, energy replenishment, and a healthy immune system. We need at least one rest day a week, but anywhere from 1 to 3 days is usually recommended.
Flexibility and stretching:
The next thing you need to know before starting your fitness journey is that flexibility and stretching are important for everyone, especially when you’re active. Stretching helps improve physical performance, reduce the risk of injury, increase range of motion, improve circulation, and also helps with stress relief, muscle relaxation, and posture. Keeping your joints flexible and mobile is essential as it will keep your body moving and functioning at its best even into old age. This is because stretching and practicing flexibility daily can offset some of the stiffness that naturally comes with old age.
Types of exercise:
The last topic I’ll discuss in the category of exercise is the different types of exercises there are. The five main types of exercise are resistance training, cardiovascular training, flexibility training, balance exercise, and sport-specific training. Let’s go over each in a little bit more depth so you know the difference and can gauge which ones you want to incorporate into your fitness journey.
- Resistance training: Resistance training includes weightlifting, body weight training exercises, training with resistance bands, and any exercise that helps build muscle and improves muscular endurance. Resistance training is good for overall health and performance and is especially beneficial because it increases your strength and bone density. This type of training includes isotonic exercises such as bicep curls, squats, pull-ups, bench presses, push-ups, or any other exercise where you push, pull, or lift. Isometric exercises are another form of resistance training in which you hold a position for a while, causing muscle fatigue, such as a plank, wall sit, or glute bridges.
- Cardiovascular training: Cardio is great for your heart health and boosting energy levels. This type of training is meant to increase your heart rate and the amount of oxygen your body uses. Cardio training helps reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. There are two types of cardio: high-intensity intervals and low-intensity long duration. A combination of both will be most beneficial for your fitness journey.
- High Intensity Interval Training: This type of cardio involves short bursts of high-intensity activity followed by a period of rest or low-intensity activity. This can include body weight exercises like lunges, jump squats, and burpees, or things like cycling, running, or boxing.
- Low Intensity Long Duration Cardio: As the name implies, this type of cardio involves doing a low intensity form of cardio for a longer duration of time. This includes activities such as biking, walking, hiking, jogging, skiing, or using cardio equipment. These activities help improve endurance and stamina because your body is moving for a longer time.
- Flexibility training: This type of training helps prevent and avoid muscle tightness, improves range of motion and balance, and helps protect your body from injury. The most common form of flexibility training is static stretching, which is moving a joint as far as you can and holding that for about 30 to 90 seconds. Other forms of flexibility training are dynamic stretching, active stretching, and passive stretching.
- Balance exercise: This form of exercise is meant to improve stability. This includes things like yoga, Pilates, and Tai Chi.
- Sport-specific training: This type of training focuses on techniques and movements of a specific sport, such as soccer, volleyball, or basketball. While strength training and cardio alone improve sports performance, sport-specific training takes it to another level.
So those are the main different types of exercise. A combination of each or at least of few of the above will offer the most health benefits and therefore will be more practical on your fitness journey. Ultimately, though, you should meet yourself where you’re at, choose the activities that speak to you, and exercise in the ways that you most enjoy and make your body feel its best.
Nutrition
Now that we know the basics of exercise, let’s dive into all the important aspects of nutrition. Nutrition will, of course, be central to any fitness journey, and more importantly, it will be central to a healthy lifestyle. And while nutrition can be a hard thing to navigate when beginning a fitness journey, especially with so much contradicting advice on the internet, I want to give my guidance on how to go about it. From my own experience, I’ve found that focusing on the following aspects of nutrition has been most beneficial to keeping a healthy relationship with food, while also trying to improve my health.
Intuitive eating:
When it comes to nutrition on your fitness journey, the best piece of advice I can give is this: eat intuitively. Tracking macros or calories is not necessary for someone wanting to live a more fit or health-centered lifestyle. When we tune into the signals and cues our body gives us and respond to those in a timely manner, we will always serve our bodies well. Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re beginning to feel full, and welcome all kinds of foods into your life. Make peace with food, don’t restrict yourself, and eat foods that taste good and that you love. Deprivation is not a part of a healthy lifestyle, it’s part of a restrictive lifestyle. Treat yourself and your body with kindness by fueling it with nutritious and health-enhancing foods. Pay attention to the way foods make your body feel, and eat in a way that makes your body feel its best. I believe it’s important to eat intuitively when beginning a fitness journey because it reduces the risk of eating disorders, improves body image, increases self-esteem, reduces stress, improves your relationship with food, and is a sustainable and long-term approach to eating. If you want to learn more about the Intuitive Eating method, check out this blog post—“What is Intuitive Eating”, or check out the official website here.
Produce:
I’m an advocate for eating more produce. Fruits and vegetables are packed with essential vitamins and minerals and loaded with fiber and antioxidants. All the vital nutrients that fruits and vegetables contain help prevent disease and keep our bodies functioning at their best. They also help support digestion, bone health, immune function, and vision. Lastly, I’ll note that eating a wide variety of produce ensures you get a broad spectrum of nutrients and therefore get the maximum health benefits.
Fiber:
When considering the elements of a healthy lifestyle, a diet rich in fiber is essential. It’s important to eat an adequate amount of fiber because it supports healthy digestion by nourishing a healthy gut, promoting regularity, and reducing the risk of digestive disorders. Fiber also helps control blood sugar levels, which may lower the risk of type 1 diabetes. Further, fiber improves your heart health and lowers LDL (bad cholesterol) levels, and therefore reduces your risk of heart disease. Foods rich in fiber include: oats, quinoa, whole wheat bread, chia seeds, beans, chickpeas, avocado, carrots, broccoli, bananas, apples, and berries. Try to work these foods into your diet for more fiber.
Variety:
For anyone beginning a fitness journey or wanting to place more attention on living a healthier lifestyle, variety is a great place to start. Eating a diet with a wide variety of food ensures you get the entirety of the vital nutrients your body needs to thrive. This is also another reason, except for medical reasons, that no foods should be off limits. Any food under the sun is an option for you, and each delivers different essential nutrients to your body. Explore different combinations of food and dishes you haven’t tried before. Order new things on the menu, buy a selection of groceries so you have plenty of options for meals you can make yourself. We all have comfort foods, of course, and staples that we love, but try not to eat the same things over and over again, day in and day out. Mix it up, your body will thank you.
Real food:
I feel silly even saying this but in today’s world it can be easy to forget: eat real fucking food. Many times, those wanting to begin a fitness journey hyper-fixate on protein and eat a diet rich in Quest bars, unseasoned grilled chicken, and muscle milk. Guys, please don’t do that. There’s a better way. You don’t have to eat that brick of a protein bar or that lump of flavorless meat to be “healthy”. Just center your meals, when possible, on real and whole foods. Eating fruits and vegetables, but also meat and other animal products, is a great way to get the essential vitamins, nutrients, and minerals that help your body feel and function at its best.
Hydration:
The next thing to consider when starting a fitness journey is the importance of hydration. You don’t have to carry around a gallon jug of water, although no shame in that either, but you do need to be drinking enough water. What’s enough water? For adults, it is recommended that men drink 100-125 ounces of water per day and women drink 75-100 ounces of water per day. Staying hydrated is important for overall health because it supports all of our bodily functions, regulates body temperature, transports nutrients, lubricates joints, helps remove waste, and keeps our body feeling its best physically. Make sure you always have a water bottle on hand. Drink up, ladies.
Macronutrients:
The last thing I’ll touch on when it comes to nutrition is macronutrients. While I don’t track what I eat, I know it can be a helpful tool to track macronutrients for a few weeks, tops, to gauge your eating habits and get to know what foods contain what macronutrients. This shouldn’t be used long-term because it isn’t realistic to track everything you eat and is therefore not sustainable. And I know for some, it can cause anxiety around food, which is never the goal. For those beginning a fitness journey, though, educating yourself on the different macronutrients and the purposes they serve will be essential to making sure you’re eating a well-rounded diet with adequate protein, carbs, and fats. If you want to learn more about each macronutrient and the roles they play in the body, check out this blog post: “Why All Macronutrients Are Important”.
Mindset
Alright, we’ve discussed all the useful information about exercise and nutrition that will help you get started on your fitness journey. Now, let’s briefly touch on the importance of mindset before closing this post out.
Consistency:
We all know consistency is key. Our life is ultimately made up of the things we’re consistent with. Our path is determined by the habits we consistently do, the thoughts we consistently think, and the way we consistently speak about ourselves. Consistency will help you build the healthy habits that you want to make up a healthy life. We will only ever see results and progress through consistency. The only way to build this lifestyle is through consistency. So be consistent. Of course, you don’t have to do every single healthy habit—meal prep, workout, stretch, get good sleep, socialize, read, eat a salad, drink a gallon of water, and whatever else each day. We have lives and jobs and responsibilities and shit. Doing too much isn’t realistic. That’s how you burn yourself out and never start again. But choose a few manageable and realistic healthy habits you can do 5 or 6 days a week, and be consistent with those.
Balance:
Remember, wellness is multidimensional, and one dimension should never take all the attention away from the others. Yes, place a lot of emphasis on your physical health. That matters. But so does your emotional wellbeing, your relationships, the way you stretch your mind, your spirituality, and your career. Find a balance with these aspects of health that you find joy in, and let that momentum move you forward. If you want to learn more about the dimensions of wellbeing, check out this awesome blog post: “What are the Dimensions of Wellness?”.
Goal setting:
The last thing I’ll mention in terms of mindset around fitness is goal setting. Guys, please set goals for yourself. Fitness is so much more fun with goals. Personally, I have a goal to do an unassisted pull-up this year. I’ve actually had it the past two years, but hopefully this is the year. I also have a goal to run two half marathons this year. That’s what I hope to accomplish, but personalize some goals just for you. What fitness goals speak to you? Only pursue what you’re interested in. The point is, setting goals for yourself in fitness keeps you progressing forward, keeps things fun, and keeps you motivated.
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Closing
Okay, that sums it up. All you need to know to start your fitness journey. I hope you all found this helpful, entertaining, or in some way beneficial. Thanks for reading and I’ll be back next week to write some more really awesome shit.
Bye for now.