What is The Importance: A Fitness Journey For Beginners

In The Beginning: 

Are you planning to get started on your own fitness journey? It’s a challenge, but nothing worth having comes easy. Here we’ll explore what fitness is, how to start a personalised workout program, measure your fitness level, and set fitness goals. 

Developing a solid workout plan is possibly the best place to start when hoping to create new exercise habits. Before that let’s start from the top to understand what fitness actually is, what’s the big deal and why are people jumping on this trend? 

The Meaning of Being Fit:

Simply put fitness refers to the overall state of your physical health and well-being. There are a number of components that make up the fitness spectrum including:

• Cardiovascular Endurance - A measure of your physical fitness. Specifically referring to the heart, lungs, and circulatory systems abilities to deliver oxygenated blood to the skeletal muscles while taking on physical activity. There are a number of physical activities that help improve cardiovascular endurance including running, swimming, cycling, and aerobic exercises. 
• Muscular Strength - This refers to the sum of weight you can lift or the sum of force you can express. Measured by a muscle group or group of muscles and the way they exert resistance. Developing a personalised workout program through weightlifting, bodyweight exercises, and resistance band workouts will improve your muscular strength. 
• Muscular Endurance - A breakdown of a given muscle or group of muscles ability to exert force against a load for a period of time. The repetitive contractions over an extended period of time can enhance overall fitness level. A Successful muscular endurance measure is a measure of fatigue. What endurance do you have without getting fatigued? 
• Flexibility - The capability of one's muscles, joints and soft tissue to move unimpeded, pain free of motion. Stretching helps to improve this, although flexibility levels vary from each individual personalised workout like yoga, pilates, and dynamic stretching also helps reduce the risk of injuries. 
• Body Composition - A term mainly used by health professionals to describe a person’s weight by understanding fat, protein, minerals, and body water. Creating a balance in this area is a reflection of a person’s diet, amount of exercise done, and is an important factor to maintaining healthy fitness levels. 
• Balance and Coordination - By definition balance and coordination is a person’s ability to stay upright or stay in control of body movement. Coordination is the ability to move two or more body parts in a controlled manner. These are essential for stability and proper movement patterns. 

When looking at these 5 factors it can be a useful way to personalise workout programs. Focus on each area and start to map out what workouts can contribute to starting your fitness journey. This also offers a way to measure fitness level. Document these things to understand where you are now, and improvements. When we achieve new fitness levels we gain strength to keep going and challenge ourselves further. 

Building a Fitness Schedule For Beginners:  

First things first you have to start somewhere. It’s always a good idea before putting together a fitness schedule to outline your goals. 

This could be: 

• Weight Loss 
• Bulking - Building Muscle 
• Training for a significant physical event - Mathartoon, Crossfit, etc. 

It doesn't matter the goal, they are personal to you, we’d suggest you write them down so you have a clear starting point and can measure as time goes on. Similar to starting a business or trying to achieve something at work you could adopt the SMART method, SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely, 

Answer questions like: 

• What do you want to achieve with your fitness routine? 
• What resources are there to get you there? 
• Amount of time required daily to achieve said goals? 
• Examples of others who have something similar to what you want? 
• How will you measure success? 

There’s no limit to creating a fitness routine, it could be from home or the gym. Once your goals are aligned, start building a workout plan. A workout plan can make your workouts a lot more seamless and organised. If you know which exercise you want to focus on you simply turn up and get going. If you create a plan, stick to it, follow it, this is the best way to make adjustments. Like most things, data is king when used correctly. As Mayo Clinic suggests, gather your tools to measure important components to your fitness level. Useful metrics to considers are: 

• Aerobic Fitness 
• Muscle Strength and endurance
• Flexibility 
• Body composition 

Make your fitness plan fun, test yourself at the end of each week to see how far you’ve come, pay attention to even the slightest of changes and continue on. You may not get your plan 100% at first but by assessing where you are for a good period of time say 2-4 weeks you’ll begin to understand where you are excelling and where you may need to make changes. 

A fitness plan promotes achievement, and goal tracking. It also increases your chances of consistency when you research your routine briefly prior to your confidence increases as well. The benefits also include understanding how much to train, so you don’t over or under do things. 

There are many workout templates you may find useful, like this free workout plan template by Pure gym.There are some detailed monthly and weekly planners to help get you on your way. 

Goal Setting: 

Lets deep dive into setting goals. This is a fundamental part of starting any journey, not just a fitness journey. Without first understanding the why it can be harder to motivate yourself to stay on the right path. Setting goals also makes each fitness journey personal and specific to each individual's requirements. If you are concerned about your overall health, or have any preexisting health conditions. Once you’ve set your goals, reach out to your doctor or a health professional to make sure that you get started in the best way for you. 

A good tip is ensuring your goals are realistic, really think about what you want to achieve and why. What resources do you have available? Home, gym, outdoors? Your overall diet will play a major part in getting to each goal in the healthiest way. Understand the difference between nutrition and diet before starting. 

The SMART Way: 

• Specific - How clear and defined is your goal? 
• Measurable - What will progress look like and how is this tracked? 
• Achievable - Will your goal challenge you?
• Realistic - How relevant is your goal to your daily life? 
• Timely - Is it clear when this will be achieved? 

6 expert tips for setting realistic fitness goals on Forbes Health written by Rachel MacPherson suggests that the best way to get the most from SMART method is to lean into process oriented goals rather than outcome goals. Take the time to better understand the differences between process goals and outcome goals. You may find separating your physical goals from your fitness goals useful, to get more granular when tracking progress. 

Remember that your fitness journey is personal to you, being healthier and fitter defined by you means you have the ability to create new long lasting habits. Your well defined objectives provide direction, motivation and a sense of purpose. 

• Direction and Focus
• Motivation and Accountability 
• Measure Progress and Celebrate Achievements
• Personalised Approach 
• Overcome Plateaus and Challenges 
• Long-term Lifestyle Changes 

These are all benefits of setting clear defined goals from the start of your personalised fitness journey. Goal setting is more than just getting to the end, it’s about embracing change, the journey towards improvement and empowerment. The act of setting goals drives you forward with purpose and determination. Explore the Importance of Setting Fitness Goals by Rebecca Jacobs. 

What should you include in your fitness workout plan? 

1. Set your fitness goals - What is it you set out to achieve? What do you want to get from your workouts? Improve endurance, lose weight, increase muscle strength or even cardiovascular endurance? Being direct with your goals at the forefront of your mind, allows you to move on to creating a workout plan specific to your needs. 
2. Select Routines - Now that you have your goals, choose exercises that will get you to your desired goal. To keep things interesting consider adding variety to your workouts. Even if you want to improve cardiovascular endurance, weights can be applied to this goal, or even muscle building you can still incorporate cardiovascular workout to improve blood. Consider body group focus areas, maybe twice a week the focus is legs and heart rate to build muscle and burn fat from focus areas. Always look to add elements that include upper body, lower body, and core. Pick some exercises, complete reps, and sets in line with each goal.
3. Plan for success - How much time will you devote to doing your workouts? Decide what days, the amount of time you’ll spend whilst working out. This is an important step to consistency. Why because if you don't know the expectation how can you hold yourself accountable? If you don’t plan these things you are likely setting yourself up for failure and should just take a seat. Consider breaking your workout routine into concentrated muscle groups. If you decide on 3-4 workouts per week, and plan to spend 1 hour for 2 of those days and 1.5 hours for the other 2 days. Look at your goals and determine which muscle group to focus on, So you may complete 30 minutes of running, and then concentrate on upper body weightlifting using sets and reps for the remaining 30 minutes. Stick to the plan, don't do more or less. If things need adjusting, come armed with data that informs your next steps. 
4. What’s your schedule? - To continue on from the point above, create your schedule based on the amount of time you’ve elected to dedicate to achieving your fitness goals. Work out which workouts will be the most effective to get you to your desired goals. Tap in resources like Strava where you can track your physical exercise, customise your goals and analyse your progress. They offer a free version as well. Try using fitness apps such as Workout for women: Fitness App, it’s completely free and offers suggestions, workouts, based on what you aim to achieve. Download and start planning your workout schedule based on the results you want to achieve, and time allocated. Another good resource to help with your workout scheduling is Workouts for men: Gym & Home. Your schedule should include specific times of the day or week where you make no excuses, stick to the days, and time allocated. The key here is consistency, a step in the right direction is better than living in tomorrow tomorrow land. 
5. Tracking to keep you motivated - Record everything, your workouts, the time spent, you can do this by using apps, journaling, or simply utilise the notes section on your phone. Select a tracking method that you can keep up with. Do not over complicate this as an excuse never to get started, or continue on. Seeing your progress is encouraging even if you are not seeing the results you want. You now have data to inform you of any slight or major changes to make your original personalised fitness plan. To be effective, ensure to document all completed workouts, the sets and reps completed and the weights used. Over time you’ll be able to determine where to go next. 

Benefits of Starting a Personalised Fitness Journey: 

It’s easy to overlook the benefits of creating a fitness plan. Just like with your daily hustles your organisation knows what tasks need to be completed by each department in order to see growth and maintain a great company structure. This comes in the form of processes, you know what work needs to be done as well as the expectations. When you achieve and overachieve you are rewarded. With fitness, yes the reward is delayed gratification. If you think about the importance of having structure at work, you can transfer the mental skills it takes to dive into your personal fitness journey. 

Taking on a personalised fitness journey offers an array of benefits that go far beyond physical health, here is a look at the advantages: 

Revamp Physical Health: 

• Improved cardiovascular health. 
• Stronger muscles and bones. 
• Increased flexibility and range motion. 
• Better immune function. 

Weight Control: 

• Burning calories aids in weight loss while increasing your metabolism. 
• Healthy body composition.

Boost in Energy: 

• A consistent exercise routine increases stamina and overall energy levels. 
• Promotes alertness and reduces fatigue. 

Tap Into Your Mental Wellbeing: 

• Decrease stress symptoms, anxiety and depression.
• Great way to release endorphins, stimulating the feelings of happiness and relaxation. 
• Enhances concentration and cognitive function.

Improved Sleep Quality: 

• Get deeper sleep and feel rested enhancing the quality of your day.
• Regulate sleep patterns and improve duration. 

Stress Decreased: 

• Natural way to relieve stress by releasing tension. 
• Positive channel to release built up emotions and frustrations. 

Enhanced Self-Esteem and Confidence: 

• Achievement of your fitness goals increases confidence and promotes positive self-image.
• Improved body awareness and appreciation.

Social Connectivity: 

• Increased chances of socialising and connecting through team sports, workout partner, group fitness. 
• Stronger sense of community and support.

Enhance Longevity: 

• Directly connected to reducing risk of chronic diseases like heart, diabetes, and some cancers. 
• Life expectancy improves, prompting healthy ageing. 

Quality of Life: 

• Physical function and mobility. 
• Ability to enjoy day to day activities. 
• Supports independence and autonomy as you age. 

Personal Developments: 

• Personalise workouts based on your goals, fitness levels increasing adherence and enjoyment. 
• Make informed decisions, with the ability to make adjustments where needed. 

Lifestyle Habits:

• Promotes healthier lifestyle habits that build consistency and lasting changes to contribute to long-term health and wellness. 
• Reduces the risk of future complications. 

Think Long-Term: 

• The sooner you incorporate healthier habits the better the contribution to long-term health and wellbeing. 

A personalised fitness journey offers endless benefits to your now and your later. By setting solid goals, planning the actions to get to those goals, tracking progress you can enhance core areas of your life including mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing. Which directly contributes to your overall quality of life. 

How to Measure Your Fitness Level: 

Set yourself up for success by understanding the now. By unveiling your current fitness level, you better understand how far you’ve come as you progress. You may find it useful to set goals after understanding your current fitness levels. 

There are different fitness tests you can complete. 

• Core Strength Test 
• Push Up Test 
• Run Test 
• Bleep Test

You can do all or focus on the ones that closely align to your goals. For example if your goal is improved muscle endurance push up and core tests can be useful. You can also utilise some metrics to determine averages, body fat percentage. Measure your fitness so you have a starting point. Do not limit yourself to just these fitness tests, here are some fitness test ideas and what they measure. 

Key measurable areas to consider: 

• Aerobic - Considered to be cardio, a tool to measure the quality of the heart's use of oxygen.
• Muscle - The amount of weighted force endured repeatedly. 
• Flexibility - Range of motion achievable.
• Body Composition - A measure of fat, bone, and muscle in the body. 

Quantifying and measuring your fitness level offers a number of benefits beyond just how much you weigh. 

1. Baseline assessment of current fitness level 
2. Informed goal setting and enhanced progress tracking 
3. Powerful motivator, tangible progress 
4. Comprehensive understanding of overall health and fitness 
5. Prevention and risk reduction 
6. Optimise physical performance and functionality 

Fitness test measures are important mainly because it will paint a real picture of where you currently are. Knowing this information then informs on the best way to start. For example if you struggle to do push ups you may not want to jump right in with weights that are too heavy. You want to take a gradual approach to protect yourself and reduce the possibility of injury. General guidelines for fitness testing taken from Future Lean: 

1. No alcohol, caffeine, tobacco or food within 4 hours 
2. Carry out the tests at the same time or day 
3. Rest well beforehand 
4. Weather conditions can affect results 
5. Drink plenty of fluid the day before 

Measuring your fitness level is not limited to just numbers, it’s an empowering way to become self-aware and release your full potential. Know where you are, to set your goals, and track progress. 

In conclusion, starting any journey can be quite daunting. It's something new, which means becoming a student to understand the why, do some research without restricting the start date. With anything there is a risk of failure. The aim here is to provide some resources that allow you to set yourself up for success while holding yourself accountable. Starting a fitness journey is a challenge that promotes healthier living. There are numerous areas that make up fitness, cardiovascular, muscle endurance, flexibility, body composition, balance and coordination. With an understanding of your current fitness levels you can use these 5 fitness metrics to develop a personalised fitness journey that gets you to your goals and is trackable. 

Determining your goals is your focus: Weight Loss, Bulking, or are you training for a physical event. It is important not to compare yourself to anyone, rather take inspiration and build your fitness journey in line with your own goals. Don’t be afraid to ask yourself key questions like, when will I achieve this (set a date)? How much time do I need to spend on my workouts, and how many days a week will get me to my goal? 

It is important to use useful metrics that focus on Aerobic, muscle, flexibility and body composition to truly know where you are and to accurately track progress. Your fitness journey is a personal one so start with measuring your current fitness level, set your goals, and select the right routines. If it helps there are many resources available which are free to use, puregym have a number of free workout planners to utilise. To select the best workout routines try using apps like Nike Training Club, or FitOn which is great for beginners. Armed with this you’ll be able to effectively track your progress, set up for success, be real with where you are now, and be determined to work towards an even better version of yourself. The benefits of starting a personalised fitness journey are endless. Think about better cardiovascular health which lowers blood pressure, allows for weight management, better mood, more confidence, regulates blood sugar just to name a few. As well as increased flexibility and improved immune function. 

The best way to set goals is to use the SMART method, be clear about what needs to be achieved (Specific), take note of what progress looks like (Measurable), how challenged will you be (Achievable)? What relevance does your goal play in your day to day (Realistic)? When will this goal be achieved? Set a date (Timely). Remember it’s your journey, define what being healthier and fitter looks like to you. 

Measurable objectives, tracking progress, and staying focused can help you make informed decisions, stay in the game, and see improvements. Keep it simple, keep it fun by embracing variety. Diet plays a key role in this journey, combining the two will enhance the chances of success. Celebrate success, this is a sure way to keep you on the right path. 

Change is part of life, let us know how you get on with starting your own personalised fitness journey. Kloc-In