Fitness Guide (Part 1)

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”

Zig Ziglar

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My last post discussed how to identify your health and fitness goals based on what feeling healthy means to you. Now that you know what you’re working towards, you might be thinking…okay, now what?

The fitness world is extremely daunting. As someone who has been intensely working out for almost a full year, I still get nervous when I’m about to try a new exercise or machine. Not only that but selecting a workout is especially overwhelming because of how crucial it is to choose the right exercises that align with your goals.

To help provide a little guidance and relieve some of the initial stress, I’m going to discuss what kinds of exercises you can incorporate into your gym-time to help you feel your best! My content will be split into two posts so that I can go in-depth on how to achieve two of the most common fitness goals.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional or personal trainer by any means. These are just some tips I’ve discovered along the way!

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“I would feel healthier if I lost some weight.”

CARDIO! CARDIO! CARDIO! To lose weight, you need to be in a caloric deficit. This means that you need to be consuming fewering calories than you would normally need. Your diet is a major component of this(we’ll discuss this later!), but cardio is a great way to burn off some of those calories you don’t want! If you’re like me, you probably despise cardio but LOVE how you feel when you get through it. Luckily, I’ve discovered a few ways to make cardio tolerable.

1. Break it up

I realized pretty early on that I enjoyed my cardio routine more when I did three 15-minute increments of different cardio machines. For example, I would do 15 minutes on the stair master, 15 minutes on the treadmill, and then 15 minutes on the rowing machine. This method helped me get through my cardio workout because it: 1.) allowed me to work on different parts on my body, 2.) provided a small break in between walking to different machines, and 3.) made my workout go by faster!

2. HIIT Workouts

Another way to do cardio is HIIT (High Intensity-Interval Training) workouts. HIIT workouts are great because they provide a lot of variety to your cardio. The key concept to these workouts is to perform at your highest intensity within a 30-40 second interval and then take a 30-40 second rest immediately following. This type of interval training lasts for the entire workout.

As I mentioned, I personally struggle with endurance. These workouts have allowed me to push myself while still getting that much-needed break in-between the hard hits of intense cardio. I can work out longer and more intensely than if I were just running or biking for 30 minutes straight. Additionally, researchers have found that HIIT workouts actually burn around 25–30% more calories than the other forms of cardio, which is exactly what we want when we’re trying to lose weight!

Although cardio is very important to include in your main workout plan, it doesn’t have to be your only form of exercise. I encourage you to add in a few strength-training and core exercises into your overall or HIIT workout. Not only will you still burn calories while doing these exercises, but you’ll feel strong! (See the picture on the far right for an example of a HIIT workout that incorporates strength and core excercises into the workout)

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“Where do I find my workouts?”

Believe it or not, I find all of my workouts on Instagram. There are hundreds of thousands of fitness accounts that post different kinds of workout multiple times throughout the week. Some of my favorites are @kimfrench87, @nattbfit, and @ashleigh_jordan. You can plan ahead for your workout by saving their posts and simply going to your “saved” tab on your Instagram page.

Youtube is another great workout resource. All you have to do is type in the kind of workout you’re looking for and you will immediately be able to find a video that works for you. I personally follow the workout videos posted by @blogilates, @fitnessblender, and @ChloeTing.

Finally, workout programs can be found or purchased online by typing into the Google search engine. For example, I searched “weight loss workout program” and found both free and purchasable programs for all body types and experience levels. This is a great option if you know you would like a strict plan to follow.

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I want to reiterate that I am not an expert. In fact, my original experience trying to lose weight was unhealthy and not effective in the long run. I was starving myself while doing minimal cardio. Once I did research and incorporated the information described in this post into my workout, I started to see the results that I wanted. I encourage you to do further research on your own so that you feel fully informed on what fitness has to offer you!

As the quote at the beginning says, “you don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great”. You can do this!

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Stayed tuned for next weeks post on how to achieve lean muscle.