How to start your fitness journey.
Posted on March 21, 2023 by Heide Lindgren, One of Thousands of Health and Fitness Coaches on Noomii.
We are not just muscle. And a proper fitness routine needs to consider that in order to avoid injury and create long-lasting change. Here's how.
It’s never too late to start a new fitness routine, but oftentimes people wind up failing because they don’t start their journey off right. Not only do people go too hard in their expectations of what’s possible (i.e. going from not working out at all to working out five days a week), many people go too hard with the types of weights and exercises they move into right away.
Let me put this reminder out there that I think often goes forgotten: we are not just muscle.
Furthermore, we are not just our BIG muscles (glutes, biceps, lats, abs, and all the other muscles people like to grow and show off).
We are tendons and ligaments. We are tiny stabilization muscles in the spine and pelvis and ankles. And it’s essential that this incredible support team we have in our bodies can handle the movements and the weights that we want to do and lift eventually.
So, if you are new to fitness or have taken a break from fitness and are committing to a workout routine in the new year, make sure to consider this when choosing what you’ll do. Plyometrics like box jumps require strong ankles. Deadlifts and squats need the support of a strong core (especially the deep stabilizer muscles in your back and pelvic region). And ligaments and tendons both take far longer to be prepared to handle heavy weights than our highly responsive muscles do.
Here are some concepts to incorporate into your workouts if you find yourself in this situation:
Low & Slow: Use lighter weights, move them slowly, and do them for more repetitions. This helps build up what’s called muscular endurance, which is a necessary step before jumping right into strength training.
Full-picture: Focus on muscle groups and full-body movements rather than isolating muscles. While it’s nice aesthetically to build certain muscles, we have to remember that our muscles all work together in the functional movements that get us through every day of our lives. When we work our muscles out together during exercise, we prepare them to handle whatever our day might throw at us.
Balance: This phase of exercise is a great time to incorporate balance work. If you are doing bicep curls, do them with one foot lifted off the floor. Do your plank with your forearms on a stability ball rather than on the floor. When in a side plank position, try stacking your feet on top of each other and reaching your top hand towards the ceiling.
Unilateral movements: Whenever you’re working on one side of your body, the other side will have to resist. For example, doing seated rows is a very effective exercise. However, if you do just one side at a time, your body has to resist the weight that’s trying to twist it in one direction or the other. This helps build up those deep stabilizing muscles of our core that support us in our posture and most of our day-to-day activities.
And it would be irresponsible of me to not remind you of the importance of warming up, cooling down, and stretching!
Wherever you are in your journey, I commend you for choosing to learn more and commend you for choosing to be healthy. I don’t know about you, but I want to be able to take advantage of everything that life brings me and I know that by investing in myself, I’ll be prepared to enjoy and learn from it all!
