In my previous articles on Finding a Healthier Lifestyle I covered how to find the problem factors in your current lifestyle and becoming self-motivated and most recently I explained some simple diet and habit changes to help decrease your daily calorie intake and increase your daily calorie expenditure.
How many times have you started a grueling exercise routine only to discontinue it before a month passes? If you’ve ever struggled with your weight, then the answer is “more than once.”
I’m going to share the steps I took to pick up an exercise routine that has helped me lose over forty pounds, build muscle, and most importantly, made me enjoy exercising.
- Start with something simple and easy: - The morning after I decided it was time to change my lifestyle I used the following routine:
- Stretch for5 minutes;
- Jog for 10 minutes without stopping (it was hard);
- 3 sets of bench press at a light weight;
- 3 sets of straight leg dead lifts at a light weight;
- 3 sets of weight-assisted chin-ups (I weighed about 250; I used 100 pounds of assistance); and
- 3 sets of weight-assisted dips.
The total duration of the entire workout was approximately 30 minutes. It was boring and I did not like it, but I knew I had to do it. Here are a few things you might want to try for your first workout:- Go for a 30 minute walk in a nearby public park or around the neighborhood.
- Go for a 10 minute jog around the block; don’t worry about maintaining a fast pace or being able to run the entire way, just focus on trying to get your heart rate up and getting used to the movement.
- Play a game of pick-up basketball with some friends; play a round of golf; or go bowling.
- Do some very light weightlifting exercises, but make sure you target larger muscle groups like the chest, upper back, and legs. If you are short on time, the amount of calories burned per amount of time spent in gym will have a greater yield if you spend your time in the gym targeting larger muscles.
- Stretch for5 minutes;
- Increment your exercise - In order to get stronger and faster, you are going to have to increase the amount you are lifting, the distance you are running, and the speed at which you exercise. You will not get stronger or faster doing the same things over and over again. So I started simply increasing the amount of time I spent running and the amount of weight I lifted, and it started to produce results.
- Find other people to exercise with you - A number of my fraternity brothers and friends were also looking to get in shape around the same time I was getting started. I invited them to come running with me and to lift weights with me.
My weight loss effort went from being a solitary activity to a team activity, and that immediately made working out a lot more fun for me. - Ask for feedback on your current exercise and dieting habits - After about a month of exercising I started grilling my friends and family for feedback on my exercise changes. Most of them simply told me I was off to a good start without giving it much though, but my friends who really knew a lot about exercise gave me some great feedback on what I was doing wrong. Here are a few things I was doing incorrectly:
- I was exercising at the same time of the day every time I worked out; this is bad because my body will be able to anticipate the strain I apply to it and it will resist the small muscle damage which results in muscle growth; I needed to vary the times of day I was exercising.
- I was running before I was lifting weights; it should be the other way around.
- I was not replenishing my body with carbohydrates while I was exercising; therefore my body was actually breaking down muscle tissue for energy during my cardiovascular workouts; so I started drinking small amounts of Gatorade.
I knew that I was generally heading in the right direction, even though the scale had not started to reflect it yet, but this feedback made me want to get into the gym and improve my routine. Make sure you ask for feedback from your friends and family. - Drop routine exercise in favor of spontaneous exercise - I stopped spending as much time jogging around the track and started spending more time playing pick up basketball and football with my friends. I bought a pair of cleats and some receiver gloves and started running routs, making cuts, and performing routine football drills. Even though these work outs were virtually unstructured, I still got a lot of exercise out of them but I ultimately had a lot more fun working out. So I’d encourage you to either seek out or create opportunities to get together with your friends and family and do something fun; here are a few activities I recommend:
- Play catch, three-flies up, or pickle with some of your friends for an afternoon. Make sure you actually run around though.
- Go with some of your friends to a rock-climbing gym; when I lived in San Diego I used to go to Rock Solid; there are rock climbing gyms in any major American city.
- Go surfing; it’s a great way to meet people, get some sun, get some exercise, and have some fun.
- Invite some of your friends on a nature hike or out mountain biking.
A lot of people get obsessed with doing "intense" exercise when they are trying to lose weight. Trying to maintain an "intense" work out that you hate will drive you to quitting. It's much better to find exercise that you enjoy. - Experiment with new types of sports or exercise - I had toyed around with the idea of becoming a boxer after I saw Cinderella Man; around May of this year I decided to sign up for an inexpensive group boxing class. Not only did the class raise my metabolic burn rate into the stratosphere, but I got phenomenally stronger and I had other members of the class to help keep me motivated to work harder.
I’m now in my fifth month of boxing and I’m currently undergoing individual sparring training, which will raise my metabolism even more. In order to stay interested in exercise, you have to change things up constantly; go out and try something you have never done before! You might just enjoy it. - Set milestones and goals for yourself - I am a very goal-oriented individual, thus I keep myself motivated by setting big, hairy, audacious goals (BHAGs) for my fitness. Here are the goals that I set when I started exercising back in February; I have 100% satisfied all of these goals:
- Run three miles without stopping for water or rest;
- Perform 5 pull-ups, chin-ups, and dips of my own bodyweight;
- Improve core and abdominal strength significantly; and
- a mile in under 8 minutes.
My current milestone is that I have lost 40 pounds since I started. My ultimate milestone is to reduce my total body fat percentage from 18% to about 8%; this will likely take a year’s worth of work under my current diet and exercise conditions. I have not measured my body fat percentage recently but I’d speculate that it’s in the neighborhood of 11% to 12%. Set some goals and milestones for yourself; it will help you measure your progress and keep you motivated. - Run three miles without stopping for water or rest;
- Measure your progress, but ignore the scale at first - In order to know if something isn’t working, you’re going to have measure your progress. Do not rely on the scale to tell you if you’re getting fitter or not. The scale is a laggard and will discourage you during the crucial first couple of months.
Use performance goals like the ones I used to help you determine if your body is adapting to the conditioning that you are applying to it. - Remember that your ultimate goal is an active lifestyle - In order to get fit you need to have an exercise routine. In order to stay fit you need to have an active lifestyle. Do not stop being physically active once you reach a milestone or a goal; the change must be permanent in order for your lifestyle to change. You have to find ways to be active and stay fit every day.
But I was still bored with my exercise routine.
This post’s author is Aaronontheweb and he blogs about ASP.NET, Web 2.0, Online Marketing, and Online Business at AjaxNinja.com. His most recent article is 7 Reasons Why Microsoft is Not Doomed.
