By guest author Cathrine

Get started with your exercise and workout!

How to start exercising is a post for every new beginner who wants to become healthier. Exercising increases endurance and has a preventive effect against diseases, provides energy and profit, and positively impacts mood. For men, starting can be the biggest challenge. But not exercising is not an option because it makes you tired. Here you will find helpful tips on how to get started.

Physical activity is all movement created by skeletal muscle, resulting in energy consumption. Physical exercise is the part of physical activity that is planned and structured and aims to improve or maintain a specific biological function.

Why train at all?

Physical training is one of the best things you can do for yourself and your body. Start exercising and see real-world results.

Here are some of its benefits:

You gain increased muscle strength.

Get increased profits.

Reduced stress.

You can lose weight (depending on the amount of exercise and diet),
and you don’t have to empty your wallet to get started with exercise. Training can be performed in many ways, with and without sports equipment.

Ten valuable things you can do to start your workout!

Do you wish to start exercising but are unsure how to begin? Many are motivated to train initially, but it is easy to lay off without exercising good exercise habits.

Here are some points to consider:

Enter into a deal with yourself.

Prepare for challenges.

Consider involving a «co-pilot.»

Follow a training program.

Focus on implementation, not a result.

Don’t train for too long.

Hard time in a calendar.

Be a little conservative in your approach.

Focus on yourself and your program.

Think positive!

Tips and advice:

A workout should last 20-30 minutes and be repeated thrice weekly.

Always warm up well before a workout.

Use manuals or other equipment to vary the training and make it more exciting.

Eat before and after training. Avoid «heavy foods» high in fat, protein and fibre.

And eat well before exercising, such as a smaller meal or protein bar 1 hour before or a larger meal 2-3 hours before exercise.

After an exercise, remember to stretch.

You start by getting up from the couch!

Many people think that to exercise; y, you must run hard workouts on a treadmill and do the lifting. This can be true for people already in good shape, but you can quickly lose motivation to get started like the rest. It is getting too harsh, too fast only. Research shows that any light exercise will give health benefits. Forget about starting too hard, it is easy to get bored, and the risk of injury is more significant. Just start moving. Try it, and see what it does with your mood! See more: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise/art-20048389.

Feel ready before you start with light exercises.

Light exercise is the next step when you feel like you are ready. Light strength training, cycling, and jogging are recommended to strengthen the muscles and increase fitness. How much you exercise determines the gain – a little is good, and more is better. The best form of exercise activates the large muscle group in the body and increases heart rate.

In the beginning, you should choose an activity that you enjoy. If you cant start exercising, – you should start calmy and gradually increase the intensity and duration.

Planning increases the chance of success.

Planning provides an increased chance of success. The same could be seen when it comes to training, that the likelihood of success increases if you formulate a plan with specific goals, both short-term and long-term. Consider what you want to achieve with your training, and set realistic goals. Once you are up and running, you may want to keep a training diary where you log your progress and track what is worthwhile.

Suggestions for suitable activities at the beginning

Push-ups, These are practical to do at home. Take, for example, 20 pieces a day.

Sit-ups and abdominal exercises are also easy to do in your home.

Go for a walk a few days a week. With time, you can walk for additional days. Think when it is convenient to take a walk and not make it too long initially. Maybe you can start going to work or get off the bus one or two-step earlier than usual and walk the rest of the way? Keep a pace that you are comfortable with and does not make you breathless.

Short swimming sessions are good training in a pool in the winter or outside in the summer and provide little strain if you are struggling with joint pain.

Cycling is a great activity where you decide your speed. Maybe you can cycle to your work a few days a week?

Skiing in the winter is good training and a pleasant activity you can share with others. Feel free to replace the quick lunch with a juicy orange.

Do some gardening: Rocking the lawn, shovelling snow and mowing the lawn are good exercises. Maybe you can compete with yourself and see if you can do it faster than last time.

Think about whether there are other things you can do to raise your activity level in everyday life. Can you take the stairs instead of the elevator when you work? Or park away from work, so you must walk a little to and from the car? Can you vacuum a bit faster than usual? Adding up to a slightly faster walk than usual? There are often no more than minor adjustments required.

Interval training is practical and time-saving.

If you have little time to exercise, consider interval training 2-3 times weekly.

Interval training is an effective and varied method that increases endurance and strength. And has been shown in the studios to be particularly beneficial for heart disease. Studies have also shown that moderate-intensity interval training increases metabolism, even after exercising, which can mean you can lose weight if you train hard enough.

Interval training could be:

Jogging

Running

Swimming

Cycling

skiing

rowing

Warm up for 10 minutes. This is important because you must get the body ready and prevent injuries.

Choose an appropriate place to run, for example, on a leisure track or an uphill.

How long and how many intervals you can do depends on what kind of form one is in, and at the start, it can be that we may not complete the whole program. That’s not a problem, keep on and do not give up. Initially, we often have to find the right speed and intensity.

The different activities that provide the highest energy consumption

To do a little bit is better than nothing

When you get up from the chair and begin to walk some more, you increase your metabolism considerably compared to sitting still. Energy consumption rises when you are moving just a little bit.

Gender, weight, age, height and muscle mass affect energy consumption during physical activity. Energy consumption varies from activity to activity. To compare various movements, they are categorized according to energy consumption.

The total energy consumption will vary with, among other things, age, gender, weight, physical shape and muscle mass. If the level of physical activity increases, the proportion of energy consumption due to physical activity increases.

Benefits of physical activity

Daily activity plays a huge role in our health and well-being. Therefore, moving daily is perhaps the most critical strategy to improve our health.

Daily activity prevents obesity:

As we move, the body uses extra energy (calories) to support a higher activity level. The higher the intensity, the more calories we burn per unit of time. Nevertheless, the daily activity of everyday life can easily be forgotten. We walked before or after work, taking the stairs instead of the elevator. And getting up from the office chair to stretch your legs a little daily is a significantly underestimated way to control our weight.

Daily activity prevents disease:

One of the biggest reasons why people get sick today is sitting still. At 20-30 minutes of daily activity, a positive effect has been demonstrated in our body. This can cause the blood to flow more quickly through our bodies. Thus we significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, several forms of cancer, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis.

Daily activity improves mood:

Have you had a long day at work and have a lot of thoughts in your head? Daily physical activity helps your mood! 20-30 minutes of physical activity daily affects your brain and the happiness hormone, making us feel good. If you lie on the couch for a whole day, you may also notice that you can get a little heavier at heart. Take a break, get out and go for a walk. Being a little more active each day will give your brain a “boost” and make you feel better the rest of the day.

Daily activity increases energy levels:

Do you often feel tired after a long week? A workout can boost our body’s ability to absorb oxygen by the heart pumping blood more efficiently around the body. The more oxygen sent around our body per minute, the more energy we want. When our hearts and lungs function optimally, we will have more energy to do our daily chores. Suddenly it is no longer a matter of going to the store or washing the floor when the weekend comes.

Daily activity can improve sleep quality:

If you have trouble sleeping at night, a workout can make getting the beauty sleep you need easier. Just make sure you do not exercise late at night. The acute effect of a workout by getting more energy is likely to keep you awake for a few hours afterwards.

Daily activity can reduce stress:

A lot of stress can lead to, among other things, insomnia, depression, muscular pain, headaches, stiffness, increased alcohol/tobacco use, overeating, cancer, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. There are several causes of stress. The high workload can increase stress levels. The best way to reduce stress is to exercise. Just as we must rest our bodies after a workout, we must also relax our heads after a long workday. Forget work for a moment; you are doing your body and head a great favour.

What physical activity does with your body

Regular physical activity or exercise provides a surplus in everyday life. It has many positive effects on both physical and mental health.

When you are active, things happen in your body that you notice right away, such as getting a little breathless, a higher heart rate, and a warmer. Suppose you increase the activity level over time. In that case, you will notice that you get better condition, manage more in everyday life and become stronger. Physical activity also positively affects the brain by reducing anxiety and improving sleep.

Physical activity gets positive effects on stress and pain. Many who are physically active with others experience that the social-contact also contributes to increased well-being and good mood. Regular physical activity leads to a better quality of life due to increased mental well-being and general physical health. Regular physical activity also strengthens the immune system in the long run. Exercising can help with a lot of diagnoses and many diseases.

Exercise makes you happier with yourself.

Exercise will get you a better self-image. There are reasons why exercising makes us happier in our life. When we exercise, our feelings and thoughts change. You will feel more comfortable and good with a little training session. Your energy will increase and get a boost.

A positive self-image is essential to love yourself. One of the best ways to achieve excellent self-esteem is to experience confirmation and mastery. Through training, you can see that exercise makes progress, that your body works, and that you are continually mastering new things. It gives good self-esteem!

Training with others is extra positive and can help us get better socially. It is often easier to work out when you agree with someone else, and being part of a community is friendly. Many have experienced making good friends through sports.

Sometimes it feels as if you need strength to get to training. Still, many have experienced that the profit will come eventually if you first get started. When you exercise, you get a body that does not give up so easily. With greater muscle mass, it is much easier to cope with the work tasks in everyday life.

About food and exercising

Right food + proper exercise = success

Dietary advice should help lay the foundation for good health and ensure an inadequate intake of nutrients. The most important thing for health is the integrity and variation of the diet.

Many believe that it is cleaver to eat little and train much. That is wrong! The body needs to get added enough energy when you train, although you want to lose weight. If you rarely eat, the body begins to break the combustion. Also, this will mean eroding your muscles and losing muscle mass. This is not what people are looking for. Eat rather often and in suitably large portions. Get enough carbs, healthy fats and proteins.

Why is protein so important?

Proteins help you to get muscle mass.

It is often said that women want to «tighten up the body». More muscle mass gives you defined muscles and a tight body. Since muscle burns fat, an increased protein intake will also help you eliminate those extra pounds. Proteins give a good feeling of satiety that lasts a long time.

Examples of what kind of food you can eat before an exercise:

Oatmeal or another meal with total flour

Coarse or semi-coarse bread with cheese, lean meat/fish spread or jam

Cereal mixture

Banana

Smoothies

Yoghurt

Protein bar

Fibre food

Seed

Nuts

Beans

Fruit

Berries

Dinner with fish or poultry

Fish and seafood

I hope this will help you start exercising and motivate you to keep going! I wish you the best of luck, and feel free to share this post with your friends and family!