How to Start Your Exercise Routine
If you ever Googled how to get started with an exercise routine, I can guarantee you will find pages upon pages of programs available to you. Sadly, all the information available may not exactly help you find the best program for your specific needs. Instead of trying to fit yourself into a specific program, why not create one that meets your goals and works with the time you have available to exercise?
The first step in starting an exercise routine is to identify what goals you have for yourself. Do you want to:
- Have a healthier Lifestyle
- Lose weight
- Gain muscle
- Tone your body
- Feel more energized
- Condition yourself for athletics
- Recover from having a baby or surgery
The list is not limited to my examples above. The first thing you must do is write down all of your goals and when you'd like to accomplish them by. Once you've completed this, ask yourself: Is meeting my goal in this amount of time actually doable if I consistently follow my plan? If you may not be sure about how you can meet your goals, ask for help! You can email me at cr3ation.fitness@gmail.com and I will be happy to help you flesh out your goals.
Once this is completed, you need to make time in your schedule. I'm not asking you to wake up at 5a every morning to exercise. That's one way your program may come to an end pretty fast! What I want you to do is to write out a schedule of your week. You are going to write literally everything you have to do, including eating, sleeping, chores, and shopping. I mean everything. You are then going to circle all of the times you have free to exercise (aka - all the blank spaces). It doesn't have to be fancy or super neat. It just has to get the job done.
Now, once you have circled all of your free time, I want you to choose 10 minutes to an hour every day exercise. I opted to highlight the times I planned on exercising. Depending on my day I sometimes got in more that one session of exercise as you can see in the picture.
Some of you may need to start with 10 minutes a day and others of you who have been exercising may need up to an hour of work to reach your goals. Regardless of what it is, write it down. Take a picture of it with your phone. Post this on your bathroom mirror and in the kitchen to help you remember. Finally, send your schedule to 3-5 people who are going to keep you accountable to this.
At this point you should have:
- Decided your goals
- Chosen when you plan to exercise each day for the week
- Sent this to 3-5 people to keep you accountable
All that you need to do now is to start exercising! Part of what I do as a personal trainer and coach is help people find exercises they like (or love) to do. If there is something that you love to do that counts as physical activity, go and do that for your first week! If you need help and suggestions on what will work best for you, send me an email and I will be happy to send some suggestions your way.
Just so you won't have to scroll through the article, here it is again: cr3ation.fitness@gmail.com.
I conduct in person sessions at your home as well as online training and coaching. If you are at a loss for what to do and need help staying accountable to your exercise plan, an online coaching package may be for you. With this type of package, I work with you to set up a plan that will meet your goals and time commitments. You will receive feedback on your exercise form (how to properly complete your exercises), an app to access your workout for the day, weekly check-ins, and daily accountability. I do this so all you have to worry about is getting that exercise in to reach your goals! Plus, currently it's 15-20% off!! Definitely take advantage of this opportunity!