I have been asked to put together something for those people who are just starting out and who may have never been inside of a gym in their life or who are not familiar with fitness and fitness facilities. I hope that this can help clear up some of the confusion that is causing trouble for a large number of people. Also remember, these are my personal suggestions and only how I see things.
First of all no matter if you are a male or female your fitness program should consist of a great nutrition program (which I have addressed elsewhere in my blogs) and then both weightlifting and cardio. I suggest for your weightlifting and cardio needs to choose a gym. All too often people with the best of intentions spend a lot of hard earned money on outfitting their basement or garage with very expensive weightlifting and cardio equipment only to lose their desire and have to sell the equipment at a huge loss. To start out the best investment can be a 3 to 6 month membership at your closest gym or fitness facility. Later on, once you have determined how far you wish to take your fitness journey you can choose to outfit your home for all of your needs. If you are going to workout at home then make sure that you have a sufficient range of dumbbells and barbell weights so that you will be able to challenge yourself as well as a cardio machine that will allow you to pursue a high intensity cardio workout, otherwise you may not be able to achieve the results you are looking for.
Ladies, do not worry that if you lift weights that you will get really big like the very muscular ladies you see in magazines and websites, mainly because almost every one of these ladies have injected a male hormone (steroid) to allow themselves to get huge male-like muscles and no matter how much weight you lift or for how long, unless you inject male hormones (testosterone) you will not get as big as a man. The most that will happen to you is that you will achieve a very nicely defined and shapely physique that will be the envy of all of your girlfriends and more than a few of their husbands.
Step one; find and decide on a fitness program that addresses all of your fitness needs. If you are looking just to lose a bit of bodyfat and tone up it will do you no good to follow a program designed for a full time professional bodybuilder, which is what you will find in most of the big name fitness magazines. You are just starting out and need to find a program that takes that into consideration as well as your nutritional, weightlifting and cardio needs. For me it was the Body for Life program. I was grossly overweight and needed to learn what and how to eat so that I could lose weight as well as making sure that I was getting enough nutrients so that I could stay strong enough to finish my weightlifting and cardio sessions. Body for Life not only did that but it was free. They give you all that you need to know to effect a complete body transformation. I honestly owe it all to my wife (bodyspace: judimax) for finding the program and getting me to follow it. She herself made a great transformation and we both have nothing but great things to say about it. Body for Life wants you to buy their supplements of course, as that is how they make their money, but either way whether you buy any, all or even none, they still want you to get into good shape and give out their program for nothing. Speaking of supplements, they are not magic pills. They are to be added to your diet for supplementation to what they hope is an already nutritious food intake. Too many people spend money on highly advertised, supposed wonder pills only to later realize that it is they that have to do the work. The pills don’t lift the weights or magically make bodyfat disappear. There are good ones out there but you need to know that unless you do the hard work and put in what I call “sweat equity,” no amount of supplements will make you look like one of the magazine models, male or female, that you admire.
Step two; show up at the gym wearing workout attire, prepared to work out and carrying both a water bottle and a fitness journal. I recommend a water bottle because you need to drink lots of water and it is always good to know just how much you are using while you are working out. Also, I personally think it is a big waste of time walking back and forth from where you are working out to the water cooler for a couple of sips here and there between sets. A workout journal will help you keep track of your routines; the weights you are lifting and let you know if you are progressing or staying plateaued, or especially if you are setting any personal bests. How else can you challenge yourself at each and every workout if you don’t know what weights you lifted last time?
Step three; plan your workouts before you reach the gym. This is another good reason to have your journal. Before you go to the gym you should decide what body parts you are working, what routine you are going to do and what exercises you are using on them. It is a huge waste of time walking into the gym and then deciding what exercises to do and then wandering around trying to decide what equipment to use. Plan first and then execute that plan. There is a saying that goes: If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail!
Step four, challenge yourself. This usually applies to women rather than men for reasons of male ego. Most men actually try and use too much weight when lifting resulting in poor form and hence, poor gains. With men it is hard, but the best thing that we as males can do is to leave our egos outside the gym door and only use weights that we can control while utilizing strict form. Women on the other hand tend to use too light of weights, maybe because they don’t want to get big muscles, but hopefully only because they have yet to be shown how to and the benefits of using progressively heavier weights.
By challenging yourself, I like to use the term “sweat equity,” I mean working smart and hard and trying to better the amount you previously lifted at each and every workout, but only by using the strictest of form. For example, if you were able to do 10 reps with 5-pound dumbbells when doing a biceps curls then the next time try and do 10 reps with 6 or 7 or even more pounds. When you can do 10 reps with whatever weight on any exercise it is time to try and increase the weight. By increasing the weight you may only be able to do 8 reps using strict form, but 8 hard reps will be better for you than 10 easy ones with a lighter weight. If you want to see results you need to push yourself out of your comfort zone.
Step five; make the most of your time. Don’t make each workout a marathon session. I like to remember the saying: “Don’t measure busywork. Don’t measure activity. Measure accomplishment. It doesn’t matter what people do, as much as it matters what they get done.”
If you are just beginning the weightlifting portion of your workouts should take no more than 45 to 60 minutes. That means you should be doing one set of the exercise, resting for about 60 to 90 seconds and then going right into doing another set and doing this until you are finished with that exercise and are moving on to your next machine or sets of weights. The gym during workouts is no place for socializing. Do your work and then once you are finished you can turn your attention to meeting other like-minded people. All too often a workout can be ruined when you become engaged in a conversation that stops you from maintaining the pace you have set. More than once I have lost my intensity and actually cooled off when approached by people who wanted to either talk about what I was doing, or who were more interested in socializing than working out. It took me a while to learn how to politely say that I needed to keep pushing or I would lose the benefits of this workout and if they would like, I would meet them after my workout was finished. It may be a hard thing to learn how to do (it was for me) but in reality you are at the gym to better yourself and to reach a goal and people should respect that. This is actually “all about you!”
Step six; cardio. Only once you have finished the weightlifting portion of your workout should you do cardio. This has been a controversial subject, whether to do cardio before or after lifting weights. The Japanese (leave it to the Japanese) found that you actually burn more calories and bodyfat by doing cardio after lifting weights than you do by doing it before. Also, and this makes good sense, If you push yourself hard doing a high intensity cardio workout then you will have less strength left to use for your weightlifting. But, if you push yourself hard lifting weights you will still have enough energy left to do a high intensity cardio workout.
I suggest in the beginning to lift weights for 45 to 60 minutes and then immediately follow that with a 20-minute high intensity cardio routine. The reason for this is so that you get to have every other day off. You can lift and do cardio all in one 65 to 80 minute workout three times a week and still have every other day for recovery. Or if you have lots of time I suggest lifting one day and then doing your cardio the next day. Whatever works best for your schedule.
One of the best forms of cardio for fat burning is what is called the high intensity routine.
Using whatever machine you choose, which can be among others, a recumbent or stand up bicycle, elliptical or stairmaster machine or treadmill and in doing so I suggest choosing a nice walking pace on the speed scale, somewhere around 2 to 2.5 miles per hour depending on your aerobic capacity, you can adjust according to your own personal abilities, and then first warming up at a lower intensity and incline level say a level 3 (on a 15 incline level machine) for the first 2 minutes then move the setting up to level 4 for the next 2 minutes. Then do level 5 for 1 minute, level 6 for 1 minute, level 7 for 1 minute, level 8 for 1 minute. Level 9 for 1 minute. Then lower the level back to level 5 for 1 minute, level 6 for 1 minute, level 7 for 1 minute and level 8, 9 & 10 for 1 minute each. Lower back to level 8 for 1 minute, then 9 for 1, 10 for 1, followed by a cool down at level 3 of 2 minutes.
Remember that this is my suggested beginner’s cardio routine and as you progress you can continue to make it more challenging by upping the levels, the time and even the speed. I suggest not running but always maintaining a brisk walking pace. Even with my artificial leg I can get bursts at time in the 3.5 to 3.7 miles per hour range but usually I try and keep it to around 2.8 to 3.0 mph and vary the inclines.
Step seven; rest! Too many people decide to get fit and then go all out and hit the gym every single day until one day they just are too sore and too tired to go anymore and they end up quitting. Every person no matter whether they are just starting or are the most experienced of fitness athletes needs time to rest and recover from the stresses and strains they have subjected their bodies to. I suggest in the beginning a one-day on followed by a one-day off program until you have become accustomed to the routine and choose to change it, which should happen approximately every 3 months. Depending on your schedule you can do a Monday-Wednesday-Friday program and still have the weekend to enjoy your family.
If I have missed anything (which I am sure I have) or if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me as I would like nothing more than to see you achieve your fitness goals and I would be honored to provide whatever information that I can.
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