A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO EXERCISE - Part 1
Dateline: 7/05/99
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A Beginner's Guide to Exercise - Part 1
First of all, you should check with your physician. This is especially important for people who have been sedentary or non-active for an extended period of time. Let them find out if everything is working properly and give any recommendations and/or restrictions. Although most gym employees are certified in CPR and/or First Aid, they don't look forward to putting their knowledge to practice.
Your next step if possible should be to join a gym. You can get hands-on instruction in exercise, fitness testing, nutritional counseling, and much more for free usually. If you already belong to a gym and haven't taken advantage of their free instructor-led workout/s and/or counseling for new members, see an employee about what they have to offer. A trained fitness professional can help you decide which exercise program is right for you and how to reach your goals. If you feel the need for continuous one-on-one instruction, read this feature on choosing a personal trainer.
If you can't afford a gym membership or you are always on the road, fear not. Read this feature on working out at home and on the road. If you are using the excuse of not enough time, read this feature.
Here are some principles of exercise that you should be familiar with as you get ready.
Training Effect
Improvement, or creating a training effect, refers to the physiological changes that occur
in the body as a result of exercise. Training should be consistent, progressive, and
specific.
A training effect will occur if the exercise is sufficient in all of the following areas: frequency (how often), intensity (how hard), and duration (how long).
Overload Principle
Training occurs when the body is regularly stimulated beyond its normal workloads by
progressively increasing frequency, intensity, and duration. Your body will respond
by increasing its capacity to perform work. This should be a gradual process.
Don't try and make your body adapt right away. You will get a training effect when
your muscles are worked slightly beyond their point of fatigue on a consistent basis
with periodic increases in the frequency, intensity, and/or duration of the exercise.
Specificity of Training
This refers to training specifically for an activity or isolating certain muscle groups
that you would like to improve. If you would like to run marathons, you would start
out walking or jogging and gradually progress to running. You would not do sprints.
If you wanted to isolate your biceps to help you in a specific activity, you would
try and do some exercises that concentrate on the bicep muscle with little or no
assistance from other muscle groups.
Mode of Exercise
This refers to what type of exercise you perform like weight lifting, aerobics, rock
climbing, and so on.
Now that you are sure you are healthy enough to exercise, decided if you need a personal trainer, stopped making excuses for having enough time, etc., and learned some key principles of exercise, you can make some goals. Set short-term, realistic goals! Don't set yourself up to fail. Losing thirty pounds in one month is unrealistic and unsafe. Although your weight may not be going down that much, you could be losing inches. Muscle weighs more than fat and burns more calories as well. You shouldn't put all the emphasis on weight anyways. Whether you are going to work out in a gym or at home, measure your bodyparts and use that as a baseline for progress. Measure your chest, arms, waist, hips, and thighs. Some good goals would be to be able to increase your time on the treadmill by ten minutes or lose one inch in one month. Write down your goals to keep a record of them. Don't check your progress too often as this will only discourage you. You must be patient and stick with it. Read this feature for more information on goals and patience.
This concludes part 1 of the Beginner's Guide to Exercise series. Till next time, read about the importance of weightlifting and cardiovascular training/aerobics. If you would like to stay informed about this site, when part 2 is released, and lots of info on exercise, nutrition, etc. from this site and around the net, subscribe to the free, weekly Newsletter.
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Part 2 will include info on sets and reps, how long to do cardio, and much more.
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