Beginners most often cannot give an accurate definition of fitness and they are all the more unfamiliar with its features and varieties. After reading the article, you will have the basic knowledge about fitness.
Then you will be able to clarify for yourself what fitness is and what problems it helps to solve, learn the basic rules of safe workouts for health and the typical mistakes of beginners.
Fitness is a whole science of keeping the body in a healthy physical shape.
This is a way to change all the indicators of your body in a positive direction, including getting rid of excess weight and tidying up your figure. How does this system work? Check out below!
Table of Contents
Basic Knowledge of Fitness
Most often, people turn to fitness if they want to get rid of a few extra pounds and other imperfections on the body. Fitness implies not only for regular training according to the chosen sports program in a specialized gym, but also to the correct nutrition system, as well as the regimen. If we are talking about body shaping, then we will talk about revising the diet in order to exclude certain foods from it, switching to healthy foods and a suitable frequency of meals.
Fitness helps not only to lose weight, its possibilities are much more extensive. Here are just a few of them:
- Improving metabolism;
- Prevention of diseases of the cardiovascular system;
- Relief from joint pain;
- Treatment of osteochondrosis, scoliosis, radiculitis and other diseases of the musculoskeletal system;
- General improvement and rejuvenation of the body.
If you listen to psychotherapists, you can understand that for some mental disorders, fitness is a better therapy than traditional drug treatment. Depression is a prime example. The secret is that exercise promotes the increased production of serotonin, one of the hormones of happiness. Its production and entry into the bloodstream are accompanied by a feeling of joy. Think about it: The compound that will enter your bloodstream at the gym is found in many powerful antidepressants. Fitness is synonymous with health and youth. Exercise prevents planned cell death, the main cause of aging, meaning that sports help you stay young as long as possible.
What is Fitness?
Fitness attracts with its versatility; there is a suitable direction for each person. There are specialized male and female programs, strength training and softer programs. The main directions are:
- Aerobics, which, in turn, also has many subspecies, such as; power, dance, slide, step, kick aerobics and many others. Classes are held in a fun, inspiring format and are always accompanied by music. Aerobics helps to adjust your figure, develop a sense of rhythm and improve the functioning of the respiratory system.
- Pilates is one of the most gentle exercise systems. These are smooth loads, slow movements, the complete absence of contraindications and any injury. Pilates allows you to strengthen the muscles without increasing volume, this has a beneficial effect on joints and ligaments.
- Fitball, exercise complexes with a large ball. Such casual trainings develop coordination of movements, make the posture perfectly even, and strengthen the muscles of the back and buttocks.
- Bodyflex, physical exercise combined with breathing exercises. For each element, a corresponding breathing system is provided, which allows you to speed up your metabolism and lose weight.
- Taibo, includes elements borrowed from oriental martial arts and boxing. To perform the prescribed exercises to the music, you need basic physical fitness, an hour’s workout in terms of the number of calories spent is equivalent to a 10-kilometer race.
What Should be Done before Starting Training?
First of all, the right attitude is important. If you look at fitness as a sacrifice to a good figure, then the effectiveness will be minimal. At the other extreme, when people immediately set themselves impressive athletic goals, this can lead to self-disappointment. You shouldn’t think or force yourself, you need to choose a suitable program and train with pleasure.
It will be good if you find yourself a fitness club with a full-time sports coach. A specialist will be able to conduct competent fitness testing, during which it will be revealed and such loads are harmful to you, and which ones, on the contrary, are shown. Minimal testing includes measurements of physiological indicators, including blood pressure and heart rate, as well as a conversation with a visitor. As a person interested in your physiological well-being, you need to tell your doctor about all the diseases and injuries you have suffered, as well as other individual characteristics. Often in clubs more in-depth testing is performed, it includes a stress test, this is a cardiogram of the heart rate at rest and during exertion. This survey determines the optimal level of stress with the highest accuracy.
As a rule, when choosing a program for a beginner, a specialist is guided by the principle that the exercises correspond to the physical capabilities of a person. The likelihood of mistakes and overexertion reduces the presence of a personal trainer, he will make each lesson is as productive as possible. An experienced trainer always knows when to make adjustments to the exercise course. When choosing a club for regular visits, always pay attention to the professionalism of its staff, which is revealed in the track records and reviews of visitors.
Practical Tips
This list has been developed by specialists specifically for beginners:
- Fitness is not a temporary hobby that can be ignored for no good reason. Bad weather, laziness, more important things, or a sad mood are not good reasons. Only regular training will bring results.
- Expect your fitness classes to take 3-4 hours a week. If you have a busy schedule, then plan your time in advance.
- You should not be afraid of mistakes, it is important to be able to gain experience from them.
- Connect proper nutrition and drinking regimen to your workouts, fluid levels must be replenished. Without this, all efforts will be in vain.
- Allow your body to fully rest on non-workout days. Don’t try to reinforce your program, overstraining will greatly reduce efficiency.
- Feel free to chat with your coach, create a diary in which you will briefly note the mentor’s advice.
- Celebrate your successes and be sure to reward yourself for them, this is the best form of motivation!
What Exercises are Right for Beginners?
At the very beginning, the set of exercises should be minimal, this will allow the body to adapt to physical activity. The training must necessarily include the following elements:
- Cardio exercise (also known as aerobic exercise) that strengthens the blood vessels and the heart. These are varieties of walking and running.
- Strength trainings for specific muscle groups, you can connect the appropriate equipment, but only with very minimum weight.
- The development of body flexibility, it should be slow, smooth exercises that cannot damage the ligaments.
Any workout should start with a warm-up, it increases the blood supply to the muscles and warms up the body, ready for the workout. Having a good warm-up period reduces the risk of injury.
Can You do Fitness at Home?
Yes, it is quite possible, but only with a competent approach. The optimal exercises for independent training are squats, lunges, and others designed to work with your own body weight. In order to do fitness at home, you only need to purchase a fitness mat, dumbbells and fitball (a specialized training ball), the efficiency will increase if you use a treadmill.
If you decide to do fitness at home, then be prepared to really look at the fact that independent workouts are less productive than centralized ones. At home, you will not have an experienced mentor who can develop a program and guide the ward in the right direction. Training without an instructor are also often limited to the problem of lack of motivation.
Fitness Contraindications
Diagnoses in which moderate physical activity is contraindicated are extremely rare. The carriers of such diseases are always aware of their problems and coordinate every action with the attending physician. However, each person may have special conditions of the body, when he or she should skip a workout, this is usually due to a high temperature, which can be the presence of signs of infectious or viral diseases.
The following diagnoses and conditions do not interfere with fitness, but the form of training for them should be facilitated:
- Pregnancy (only specialized types of fitness);
- The presence of internal prostheses;
- The presence of malignant tumors;
- Diabetes;
- Epilepsy;
- Disorders of the mental system.
