Why Do You Want To Get Fit?

Time to get specific with your fitness goals.

Get your notepad out and write down your answers to the following questions.

This notepad could be used as your fitness journal.

Why do you want to improve your fitness?

And what would that look and feel like?

• Is your goal to get fitter so you can play sport again?
• Do you want to look awesome for your own satisfaction?
• Do you want to be powerful so that you look and feel more physically intimidating?
• Do you want to be healthier in a more general sense?
• Do you need to get healthier to help with a health challenge, such as hypertension?
• Or perhaps become more attractive in your quest for a date?

Where are you now?

• What is your current situation?
• What have you tried in the past?
• Why has it not worked?
• What is your current shape and size?
• What are your physical strengths and best attributes?
• What do you enjoy doing?
• How much time do you have?
• How much money do you have?
• How much space do you have (if you want to workout at home)?

This is all very important because it is going to drastically change the way you go about accomplishing your goals.

For example, if your goal is to be more physically intimidating, then you might decide that it makes the most sense to bulk up. This means adding the most muscle mass possible onto your frame in order to become a muscle tank.

In a nutshell, it involves eating a ton of good, nutrient-dense calories, resting a lot and lifting (usually) heavy weights.

So, you would need to:

• eat enough
• exercise heavy or intensively enough, and
• rest enough…

…if you want to grow.

On the other hand, if you just want to become toned and lean to attract a mate, then you are going to want to watch what you’re eating and get more aerobic exercise such as

• walking,
• running,
• skipping,
• swimming,
• cycling, etc.

These aerobic exercise options are useful, especially if you suffer from hypertension.

Basic considerations

You also need to think about

• the exercise that you enjoy doing,
• what exercises are practical to work into your routine, and
• any physical limitations such as illnesses, joint problems, etc., in which case, see your doctor first before exercising.

4 Tips for Setting and Sticking to Realistic Goals

One of the most important considerations when coming up with a training program,

…whether by yourself or with a qualified trainer,

…is making it fit into your daily routine.

Think about

• when you have free time,
• how your energy levels are at different points during the day and
• what you can do to capitalize on the moments in your routine that are free for exercising.

Tip 1: Fitting it In

One of the best ways to keep fit, for example, is to go walking.

Walking is ideal because it burns calories without exhausting you, or making you sweaty.

Unless you are hypertensive.

You can conveniently fit it into your routine and do it regularly without it becoming tedious.

And most of us could easily fit more walking into our routine.

For example, pandemic and social distancing aside, if you are at work you might find that you can use your lunch break to go on a long walk.

In the normal scheme of things…

If you have 60 minutes for lunch, you would make sure to eat at least two hours before going for your long walk.

Typically, that would be your coffee break, when you would have a light nutritious meal that would help you sustain your energy levels.

Or, if at home, you could walk the dog.

If you pass a shop that sells protein shakes in bottles each morning…

…or you find one online…

…then maybe switch your morning coffee for a morning protein shake.

A 50-minute walk each day should easily be enough to hit your 10,000 step goal…

…if you have set one…

…which is around 5 miles and should lead to an additional 3,000 calories (roughly) burned each week.

That’s the amount of calories you normally burn in a day.

More importantly it will build your fitness significantly, give you more sunlight and fresh air etc.

However, in a public health crisis…

This is perhaps more challenging while you are wearing a mask and having to abide by local mandates and restrictions.

If you suffer from hypertension, start off at somewhere between 20 to 30 minutes of light, low-impact, walking per day.

Naturally, you will want to make sure you are in touch with your healthcare professional before you start exercising.

Even if you consider yourself to be in the best of health.

So, particularly if you’re starting out, you do not need to do High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workouts five times a week that leave you exhausted… just go for a nice walk that will conveniently fit into your routine!

You can fit a walk in by getting off the bus early, by walking home from work, walking the dog, and so on.

A viable exercise alternative

What if you are working from home because of a pandemic and you want to fit in a workout?

More and more people are working out at home.

You may have seen…

• the ads for exercise bikes and “mirrors”
• images of people doing yoga,
• news items of people losing weight during lockdown…

Do you know Planet Fitness™ started online classes earlier this year where you can do workouts at home?

Tip 2: Enjoy It

Your exercise routine should be something you enjoy.

If you have tried and failed to build lean muscle with weights, despite making tweaks to your routine, perhaps you need to try something else.

Perhaps you are focusing on just keeping fit.

In which case, you might use exercise equipment and gadgets such as

• a pair of parallel bars,
• stretch bands,
• a set of dumbbells,
• home gym (if you have the space; some equipment can be tucked away).

Maybe you find you love boxing, or something much gentler, like Qi Gong. Though keeping fit by standing still is not as easy as it sounds…

Tip 3. Play to Your Strengths

What is your body type?

There are three main types:

• ectomorphs: thin, so-called “hard-gainer” types
• endomorphs: tend to be large build, sometimes overweight/obese
• mesomorphs: muscular types that easily pack on muscular bodyweight.

Where possible, try to align your fitness goals to your body type (remember tip 2).

So, for example, if you are an endomorph, you could focus on becoming a massively powerful hulk while losing weight.

Your focus might be on keeping size rather than body-shaping.

That is, if being shaped like a competitive bodybuilder does not really matter to you.

If you’re an ectomorph, you could go for the lean look.

It helps if you already have a naturally wiry build.

There’s nothing wrong with going after the more difficult dream of putting on mass and shaping your body.

If that is what you want.

Be flexible with your goals, shoot for the one that you’re already genetically gifted in. That way you will find it, intrinsically, more rewarding.

How do you know what your body type is?

Tip 1: Look for role models that are similar to you.

Look for people who started in your situation, people who have body types similar to your own, but who have made the most of them.

Those are, sometimes, the people to listen to when it comes to training advice because they have worked with (most likely) a similar genetic starting point and similar set of circumstances in life to begin with.

Tip 2: This is what I call the wrist test.

• hold the wrist of your left hand with your right (or vice-versa)
• wrap your middle finger and thumb around your wrist

If there is an overlap of finger and thumb, you are an ectomorph.

If you are unable to get them to meet each other, you are quite likely an endomorph.

If the tips touch, you are a mesomorph.

This is not an exact science and you might wish to consider that people move between body types depending on circumstances.

Tip 4: Take it Slow

A good fitness goal should include working out for 15 minutes, maybe even 10 minutes as a minimum.

At least three times per week.

Don’t come up with insane strategies that involve training twice a day for more than two hours per session.

Be willing to see small improvements over time so you don’t burn out by over-training.

Conversely though, don’t take it so slow as to not see results.

The “Minimum Effective Dose”

The objective here is to use the MED – or “Minimum Effective Dose”.

That means you’re committing just enough time to actually see progress, so that you can start to assess and judge your strategy and so that you can improve it over time.

Don’t do more, don’t do less.

By doing all of this, you will have come up with a training program (whether by yourself or with a qualified trainer) that is specific to you and takes your lifestyle and genetics into account.

If you have tried and failed at one fitness approach, for example, weightlifting, several times in the past, then maybe it’s time that you took a different approach, say, swimming three times a week after work.

Or by getting a heavy bag and punching that for 40 minutes a few times a week.

Maybe you just do 15 to 20 minutes of basic bodyweight exercises.

Or jogging, cycling…

Start on doing something. Experiment to find what works for you.

Additional notes:

• High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is for people who are at around an intermediate training level (about six months to a year).
• Those adverts with people doing intensive workouts? They are most likely to be much fitter than you.

As appealing as it looks.

And they ARE appealing.

PS: Look out for a brand new series on doing bodyweight exercises. Coming soon!

Note: I am not associated with Planet Fitness™ in any way. I just like their business model.

Sources:

Man sheds 110 pounds during quarantine. Located at WSAV.com (online). https://www.wsav.com/news/coronavirus/man-sheds-110-pounds-during-quarantine/ [Accessed November 15, 2020].