Beginner Fitness: Your Questions Answered

Do you feel like a beginner fitness rookie?

Your questions answered.

Often I am asked questions of people wanting to make changes to their everyday living, the most common are:

How much time should you invest with fitness each day?

The recommended amount of daily activity is 150 hours per week according to the Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health. You can exercise in 30 minute blocks of time, or, if your schedule allows you might have to break up those 30 minutes into 10 or 15 minute increments of moderate to intense exercise.

What type of fitness is best?

This is personal preference based on your likes and interests. If you are a stay at home mother needing a little more adult interaction, you might enjoy working out at a gym or becoming involved with pick up leagues. Pick up league typically are through your local recreational department. Do you like dance then sign up for Zumba; feeling stressed about your day to day life then maybe power yoga is the answer; you were active in extracurricular sports in school then adult pickup basketball is for you. Home workouts using fitness DVD’s are another excellent option. There are many options to choose from without having to “join” anything like running, biking, rollerblading and more; look around your neighborhood for things you see other actively doing then find what works for you.

Where should you workout?

When I first became physically active I worked out in a gym, utilizing their trainers and variety of equipment choices. Over time I found that I had acquired much of my own equipment; for the price of the annual membership I purchased a piece of cardio equipment completing my home gym. Working out at the gym was wonderful, I learned a lot and had interaction with like minded individuals. I found that the added flexibility of a home gym fits my busy lifestyle better. Having a home gym isn’t for everyone as you need to keep yourself motivated. Home gyms have the advantage of never having to wait for equipment with an added plus being that you can work out in comfort in your jammies.

What programs should you use and how should you get started?

You can hire a personal trainer to teach you the proper moves and set up a workout plan that suits your needs. Personal trainers will monitor your form and give you solid technique training. If trainers aren’t your style then give fitness DVD workouts a try, there are many excellent workout DVD’s on the market and I am sure with a little reading something will catch your attention. For more information on the programs I use visit my site, a synopsis on the programs is available or ask me for suggestions on what might work for you. Either workout option is fine or perhaps a combination of both might work best for you.

What is the best time of the day to get workouts in?

This is a very common question for those struggling with beginner fitness, there is no right answer as it depends on your personal schedule and obligations. I like to get my workout done first thing in the morning, before my family and life’s obligations take over my day. I tend to be fresher in the mornings and better rested, the added advantage is that my workouts energize me, focus my attention for my day and get my blood pumping. I have had conversations with people that like to do their workouts in the afternoon as they feel that the day’s nutrition has better prepared them for the energy burn. Look at your schedule to see where 30 plus minutes might be a better fit and keep in mind the type of activity might dictate the time it is done, for example, fitness classes run on schedules and so do adult sports leagues; of course home workouts fit your personal schedule.

What foods should you eat for continued success in staying fit and trim?

A recent article about the things I would mention to someone just starting out on their journey to becoming fit.  I have been a home cooking fan and gardener for years. Shopping the outer perimeter of the grocery store is a good plan of attack, check labels for ingredients that you can both pronounce and recognize as being a real food item helps. Plan your meals for the week, if you work outside of the home bring your lunch and snacks to avoid the quick food vendors.

What else can I do to remain fit and healthy?

Sleep! When you burn your candle from both ends, as a busy mom who doesn’t, you tend to rob valuable time from your sleep schedule to fit everything in to your busy day. Missing sleep will show up quickly on your face as you will look as tired as you most likely feel. Sleep recommendations for adults is approximately 8-9 hours of a night, going to bed at the same time and avoiding eating and caffeine before bedtime will help you to get a restful night’s sleep. Research done by Stanford University showed that people sleeping less than 5 hours a night had an increase in Ghrelin, a hunger trigger decrease in Leptin, which shuts down hunger. Lack of sleep will make you feel hungrier and could potentially have you craving and eating foods that your body doesn’t actually need.  (for more on connection between sleep and weight control see this article by Natural News)

Water:

Keep and stay hydrated for the best results, you body needs to maintain it’s water stores to function properly. For more information on water click on: “Water, How something so simple can be so complicated.”

These are just a sample of the questions I might get on any given day. If you have other questions you would like help with or topics you would like to see a post about please feel free to email me. Beginner fitness questions are a normal way to figure everything out, no worries, you are normal.