Exercise Advice for Beginners
Protips from a PRO Bodybuilder
Good advice isn’t always what you want to hear, but it is what you need to hear. If you’re serious about exercise and your improved performance, don’t just read the following advice. Listen. This isn’t popular, or even polite advice; this is important exercise advice for beginners.
DON’T LISTEN TO EVERYONE
Your health and fitness aren’t about making everyone feel good. It’s about making you feel good. So for that reason, you can’t listen to everyone. You’re undoubtedly going to be offered advice by any and everyone, but be careful of who you listen to. In the field of fitness, accomplishments, and experience speak volumes towards credibility. So simply stated, avoid being so quick to listen to other newbies, your friends, gym buddies, out of shape trainers, or anyone that has never accomplished anything in the field of fitness.
LIFT LIKE NO ONE IS WATCHING!
Stop being shy, awkward, and insecure. Sure, you may feel uncomfortable at times while exercising, but everybody does when they try something, anything new. That person whose physique or training intensity you admire wasn’t always “that” person. Everybody starts somewhere. So step outside of your comfort zone, try new exercises, don’t be afraid to grunt, make that ugly face while lifting, or look in the mirror. Who really cares?
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER…ESPECIALLY IN FITNESS
Here is where you can speed your learning curve. Knowledge is power, especially in fitness. It’s not about working harder, it’s about working smarter. In your journey, you will constantly have to increase your knowledge to appropriately challenge and improve your body. If you’re looking for someone to “give” you the answers, you’re sadly mistaken.
It’s like someone doing your homework. Sure, it might not matter that day or even the next day. But someday you will wish you had taken your education into your own hands. Practice being a continuous learner and a malleable mind. As your knowledge progresses, you will realize how much your views regarding diet and exercise will develop and change.
THOSE EXERCISES THAT ARE TOUGH…DO THEM
Usually, the exercises we don’t enjoy are the ones we need to be performing. Are there exercises you absolutely dread? Of course, there are, and they’re probably great exercises for you. If you’re serious about developing your physique, training your legs will be very important. Too many beginning exercisers make the SAME mistake.
They don’t like training legs, so they don’t. “It’s tough. It hurts. I don’t like it.” Yes, it is. It’s also such a large muscle grouping it is like training two workouts at once! Remember, work smarter, not harder. Think of training legs as one painful step backward to take two bounding leaps forward. When you’re in your older years, you will appreciate the independence that being able to get up by yourself brings. (Learn to squat! If unsure how, please learn from a professional.)
STOP “EXCUSING” YOUR DIET
This concept truly doesn’t sink into individuals fast enough. Let’s speed up your understanding. You can realize it today or ten years from now, but diet is very much important to fueling your efforts, speeding your recovery, and feeding your improvements. The truth is you can exercise and get stronger, run longer on your current diet…but your body may look exactly the same.
So do you want minute change, or do you want substantial change? Stop thinking you can eat and drink however you want and that “exercise will make it alright.” It won’t. Accomplishing your goals will require sacrifice. If you’re making every excuse in the book for not improving your diet, you won’t accomplish your goals.
SIMPLIFY YOUR PHILOSOPHY
Sometimes we overthink things. Fitness is one of them. “This many sets, this many reps, this much rest, keep your heartrate above this number.” Really?? Let’s simplify. Want to know if your workout is heading down the right path? Below are some simple phrases to remember.
• If it challenges you, it changes you.
• To make your body change, you have to give it a reason.
• Force your body to adapt to a higher work load. Force it to grow stronger and bigger.
• Nothing in life comes without sacrifice.
• Hard work pays off.
• Chase and find your “Challenge Zone.”
SHORTCUT OR SHORT-SIGHTED?
If you believe you can accomplish your dream body in “Just 20 minutes a day, three days a week!” you are sadly deluded. Twenty minutes anything is snake oil. Does it even pass the Common Sense Test? We’re smarter than that, folks. The truth is, whatever physical goals you have will require sacrifice and effort in regards to training AND diet. Sure, we would all love shortcuts, but your fitness shortcuts involve education, effectiveness, and hard work.
That’s your “shortcut.” Don’t waste your time being naïve or uneducated about your body, exercise, or diet. Invest in your education, not in your “magic beans.” And if there were an amazing “magic bean,” you would already know about it!
Remind yourself, fitness is a journey. Some lessons can take longer to learn, but why should they if we can speed up the process? Take heed of some of these common areas of weakness and mistakes for new and beginning exercisers and speed that learning curve!
“EVOLVE INTO YOUR STRONGEST YOU!” Exercise Advice for Beginners By Mario Singelmann
