Beginner Fitness Tips You Should Know

Getting started with fitness? If you’re a beginner, it might feel pretty daunting right now.  You may be feeling like you just can’t keep up with all the different information out there with regards to how to set up a workout program and how to ensure you carry it out to success.

Not to worry. Even the most skilled fitness professionals were once in your shoes.  The great news is that since you are starting from a blank slate and are seeking out proper information now, you can be sure you aren’t building any bad habits that will only lead to you sacrificing results down the road.

Let’s go over some of the biggest beginner tips you should know when it comes to fitness.

Learn Proper Form

First things first, as a beginner, it will be absolutely essential that you are learning proper form. If you don’t learn good form now, you will only be on path to an injury down the road.

Invest in a session or two with a personal trainer who can show you precisely how to perform each exercise you plan to do.

By learning good form now, you will be setting yourself up with the foundation for success.  Make sure that you are sticking with the basic exercises as well such as squats, deadlifts, bent over rows, shoulder press, and bench press if doing a strength training program.

There’s no need to get fancy at this point in your fitness career. Work on foundational moves that will help build muscle strength and endurance.

Value Rest Days

Next, know the value of your rest days. Just as your body needs to exercise, it also needs to rest.  In fact, it’s during this rest period that you are recovering and growing stronger.  Many beginners neglect this and try and hit the gym 5 days per week, thinking this will move them faster towards their goals.

Only it won’t.  You must have rest days present if you are going to go on and see the results that you want.  Have at least one full day off, if not two each week and then one or two easier days added into the program plan.

Know Your Limits And Listen To Your Body

It’s also vital that as a beginner, you know your limits. Don’t push your body beyond what you know it’s capable of doing.  Right now, you are under great stress and your body is just learning how to deal with that.

Especially if you are strength training, there will be a period of adjustment where your body is adapting to this type of stress being placed upon it.  Push too fast now and you will just burn out quickly.

Learning to listen to your body takes great skill and even some of the most advanced exercisers still are not able to do it correctly but if you can work on learning this now, it will serve you very well later on in your fitness career.

Set SMART Goals

It’s also important that you set some SMART goals as a beginner. This will ensure that your goals will serve you will and you will stay motivated going forward.

SMART goals include those that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and have a timeline for when you hope to reach them.

If you aren’t quite sure if your goal is realistic or attainable, talk to a trainer or someone who is more experienced than you. They will be able to guide you.

If your goal isn’t, it’ll be hard to stay motivated right from the beginning.

For instance, you might want to run a marathon, but right now, that isn’t realistic. Instead, try signing up for a 10km and then use the 10km trainer to help get you to the finish line. That will be more realistic at this time.

Find Something Fun

Finally, last but not least, as you go about your fitness program, be sure to find something fun. If you aren’t enjoying yourself, this too will make it nearly impossible to stick with any plan you try out.

Get in at least one activity each week for pure enjoyment’s sake.  It doesn’t matter how much it boosts your fitness level or not, just do it to help reduce stress and bring you joy.

This will help you form a better relationship with exercise, and ensure you are more likely to keep leading the active lifestyle in the long run.

So there you have some quick and simple beginner’s tips to remember. Are you missing out on any of these?

Which tips have helped you the most as a beginner? Post it in the comments!