There are plenty of articles out there for the best way to get washboard abs, build great biceps, or improve your 10K running times. But, one problem is – all that information pretty much assumes your in shape to begin with? It’s all great information once you’re in shape, but what if you want to know how to get back in shape?
Like most things in life, its best to start with the basics. Most of us have a goal – for example, “six-pack abs by summer”. Or, “Loose 10 lbs. in the next 90 days”. Instead of having that mindset, it’s better to do something – every day. Your goal should be to build a fitness lifestyle that you can sustain over time. Goals are good, but what happens when you’ve achieved it? So, if you set aside time every day for some basic movements, you’ll find that you’ll not only hit your goals, you’ll have a sustainable program that keeps you fit and healthy over the long run.
Week 1 – Expand your range of motion.
The last thing you want to do when you start out is to hurt yourself. Your muscles and connecting tissue isn’t used to the load you’ll be imposing on them once you start working out. Starting out with exercises that are focused around stretching and increasing mobility. So – spend your first week spending 2-5 minutes, 3 times per day, performing basic stretching exercises such as these.
Week 2 – Start building strength in key areas
What you want to do here is to build up strength in your large muscle groups. Muscles like your chest, your hamstrings and glutes, and your back. Try the following – 10 pushups, 10 body weight squats, 10 step-ups, 20 sit-ups, and 10 pull-ups (if you can’t do a pull-up – start with hanging from a pull-up bar for as long as you can). Building up strength in these core areas by doing 3 total rounds of the above exercise in each workout, resting for 30 seconds between each exercise.
Week 3 – Long Term Workout Plan
For the last two weeks, you’ve increased your mobility, you’ve increased some basic strength – both of which are important to avoid injury as you now increase to doing longer and harder workouts. And, you’ve also started building a habit of regular workouts.
Your long term goal is to do two things. One is to gradually do more work – this is known as progressive overload. You’ll want to keep working harder and doing more, as your muscles will get used to what you are doing, and your progress will plateau unless you keep doing more, whether that’s increasing weight, increasing reps, and / or increasing sets. The second is to stay consistent with your workouts. These two goals should hold true whether you’re looking to loose weight, build muscle, or both.
So, if you’re working out three times a week, 52 weeks a year, you will see progress! Now, the exact plan of exercises is up to you. Now is where you can start targeting goals like loosing weight, getting those killer abs, or building up those biceps. What’s important here now is you set up your workouts doing roughly the same exercises, but changing up the sets & reps. As the exercise gets easier, add some weight. Doing high weight / low reps is good for building muscle mass, and lower weight / higher reps is good for increasing endurance. Mixing these up means you get a good variety of both building muscle and endurance.
How you get those exercises in is up to you. You can join a gym. Or you can get equipment for working out in your own home. Your home workouts can start with items like the TRX Suspension System, which allows you to get full body workouts with the system originally designed by a Navy SEAL. As you need to increase your resistance, you can look at a home gym like the TuffStuff SPT-6B Six-Pak Trainer. When you’re ready to add exercise equipment to your home, stop by any of Fitness 4 Home Superstore’s 3 Phoenix-area locations – and we can help match the perfect piece of fitness equipment for your fitness needs!
