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Fitness Tips for Beginners

Being a mom is tough work. It’s a physically and emotionally demanding experience that drains you of energy, especially when the kids are young and filled with enthusiasm and energy. You need to be fit and energetic to ensure that you can keep with the demanding nature of your children.
Stepping into a commercial gym for the first time can be quite a shocking and intimidating experience. If you don’t know what you are doing, you will never progress and achieve your fitness goals. Here is everything you need to get started on your road to physical fitness, take a few of the ideas and implement them in your next workout.

Compound your Efforts

The first place to start is with bodyweight exercises focusing on a compound effect. A compound movement is an exercise that works multiple muscle groups at the same time. Compound movements such as squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, and push-ups produce the best strength gains and support rapid fat loss.

Start your gym training program with three workouts a week. On the first day make sure you focus on compound movements and design a workout where you select four movements and complete four sets of ten to twenty reps for each exercise.

As you progress with your workouts and begin to feel like they are not challenging you anymore, add in some barbell weight training. Start the weight training with squats first. Load the bar with enough weight that will allow you to get ten to fifteen repetitions without failing in your form.

This will build strength in your muscles but don’t think that you will end up huge and muscular like a bodybuilder. Growing muscle takes a lot of time and while you might see tremendous improvements in your muscle tone, it’s doubtful that you will end up looking like a freakish muscle bound bodybuilder.

After a few months when you feel you are comfortable with your workout and handling weight, try out the squat challenges for women and take your training to the next level.

Test Yourself with Tabata Sets

Tabata sets involve completing six to seven aerobic or anaerobic exercises in a circuit to complete one round. For example, a typical Tabata workout would involve;

  • Push-ups
  • Crunches
  • Box jumps
  • Rope skipping
  • Leg raises

To complete a Tabata set you would execute 20 reps of each exercise, one after another, with no rest between exercises. Completing all the exercises would qualify as one round.

Try to complete six to eight rounds in less than twenty minutes with as little rest between sets as possible. This will be your second workout of the week and should take no time at all, perfect for the busy mom that doesn’t have much time to spare.

Get Going with HIIT – High Intensity Interval Training

HIIT is a demanding form of cardiovascular training that will get you fit quick. For this training, you can pick a treadmill, elliptical machine, or even the track to complete your workout. Start off by warming up properly with a light pace for five minutes. Once your body is warm and the blood is flowing through your muscles, begin your HIIT session by completing a wind sprint for thirty seconds.

This sprint should elevate your heart rate to its maximum and really stretch out your lungs. Once you have completed the sprint do not rest, walk or drop the pace until your heart rate drops to the 125 to 135 bpm mark, then begin your second sprint. Complete as many sprints as you can in thirty minutes and you are done for the day. This will be your third workout of the week.

Recovery – The Most Important Factor

With three workouts in the bag for the first week, pat yourself on the back and realize that you are on your way to achieving your fitness goals. However, the work doesn’t end after you leave the gym. Nutrition is the other half of the battle to getting fit.

Make sure your diet is rich in protein and healthy fats to fuel your workouts. Use carbs sparingly and avoid refined carbohydrates and sugar as much as possible. Never begin a workout if you are still feeling stiff, it’s an easy way to get injured. Your recovery from workouts is as important as the workout itself, so make sure that you eat your meals and get as much rest as you can.

Track Your Journey

Log your training sessions in a journal. Tracking your workout performance will give you valuable insights into what is working for you and what is not. If you find that you struggle with the form on any of the exercises, ask one of the gyms personal trainers to critique your form.

The more data you collect on your training, diet, and feeling of well-being, the more you will have to analyze when it comes time to change your routine in eight weeks’ time. Until them, get started and stay committed to your fitness goals.

 

 

Comments

  1. Mary Ambrosino says

    Going to try a Tabata set. Sounds like it covers all the bases.

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