1. If you haven’t exercised for some time, make sure you check with your doctor and have him approve your planned exercise program. Starting an exercise program that is too intense for beginners could lead to some serious health risks, and your doctor will be able to guide you in that regard. Trust his advice because aside from you, he knows more about your health and your body than anyone else.
2. Perform a fitness test at a local fitness or recreation center. This will pump you up and motivate you to be better. My friend did this and I could not believe how excited he was to change his body and health after the test. I think this was his secret to his success. The test included his weight, body fat percentage, body fat mass, BMI, VO2 max, bicep strength test, flexibility test, and told him his relative body age. For him, these numbers were not pleasing, and they motivated him more than anything I had seen before. If you’re already a member of gym check and see if they offer a free fitness. If it’s not free, I would recommend doing it anyway. Also, if you live near a university, call the Exercise Physiology department and see if they will do the test.
3. Do your homework. Knowledge and education are power and motivation. Go online and watch some videos about the exercises you want to do. Some movements with weight lifting can be tricky if you’ve never done them, and yoga, pilates, and many other exercise programs are very foreign to someone who has never done them. Getting a mental picture of what you’re going to be doing will help you with your form and ease some frustration that many feel after starting to exercise.
4. Set some easy goals and write them down. Frankly I’m blown away that my friend who hadn’t exercised in 15 years has changed from doing nothing to swimming every morning! I wouldn’t necessarily discourage you from setting a goal to workout every day like him, but it might not be realistic for you. I would recommend setting realistic, small goals at the beginning, and working your way up to larger, more difficult goals.
5. Get a workout log. When performance is measured, it improves. So get a log, a paper notebook, an excel file, or anything you can use to write down what you’ve done for exercise. This will help you track your goals, and let you know when you’ve obtained them.
Starting to exercise is a big deal, and congratulations for deciding to do so! We hope these five tips will get you going in the right direction with whatever exercise program you’ve decided to use.