personal training 4 all: starting an exercise program

Traditional advice would recommend that you obtain a medical clearance before commencing any structured exercise program.

This is particularly important if you have not exercised for some time and in particular if you're over the age of 30 or so.

Evaluations such as the Par-Q (or other such tests) may be useful in determining if you need a medical clearance. These involve a pen and paper questionnaire which determines to some degree the likelihood of you experiencing any health difficulties.

It is usually a good idea to speak with your doctor about what you intend doing.

When commencing a program following a medical clearance, take a conservative approach, that is, do a very moderate amount of work at an appropriate intensity (low to moderate).

Regardless of your long-term objectives, probably the most important thing to initially consider is the appropriateness and consistency of your workouts.

Some of the more common mistakes include exercising too often, too hard and with inappropriate activities.

Progress will occur much more rapidly if you challenge yourself in ways that will allow adaptation to occur.

Try to consider the process as a journey.

You have a destination (your objective, whether that is getting fitter, more active, losing weight,...) and now you need to make a plan of how to reach your destination.

You set off towards your destination by completing a number of sub objectives...

Take a step, then evaluate whether or not you're headed in the direction of your objective.

Continue this process, all the while comparing where you are against your objective.

Like any journey it is composed of a number of smaller steps.

Each step moves you toward your objective, but this is a place not too far from where you are at present.

Moving too fast or in an inappropriate manner will usually end up having you end up either arriving in a slower manner, or not at all.

In a physical sense, it's not really necessary to be really sore and tired in order to achieve your objective.

Over and over again people who have not exercised for a long time over estimate their capabilities and commitment.

For years they've done very little, now all of a sudden they "get the bug" and are committing a considerable amount of time to their exercise.

While their effort is commendable, it’s often misplaced.

Taking time to exercise out of your schedule will have an impact on many other aspects of your life...

You have a limited amount of time and a number of commitments.

To include exercise in your busy schedule, usually something else has to make way. What is that thing going to be?

Consider things such as relationships, work, personal development, education, socialising, relaxing, sleeping ...

While exercising may help you feel better, have more energy etc your initial objectives should be on establishing a maintainable processes that you can continue over a long period of time.

Exercise is a Quadrant 2 activity, it's important, but not urgent. Investing time in such activities result in the prevention of crisis. So its a vital thing to do…. Where choices need to be made try reducing unimportant activities.

These are further explained in a previous article too busy to exercise or too busy not to?

Committing large amounts of time towards exercise is usually unsustainable, and therefore often initial enthusiasm is insufficient to maintain the process over a considerable length of time.

As such, initially try to attend two or three times per week for the first month or so, even if you feel that you can handle more.

The aim is to do this with regularly, rather than aiming for unattainable objectives in a short period of time.

Take your time. You will actually end up with a better result, less stress on your body than if you push yourself unnecessarily in the initial stages.

Set a date to start and a realistic amount of time to spend.

While the time you need spend may vary according to your objective, I'd suggest certainly no more than one hour and in many cases initially starting with 30 to 40 minutes.

Remember, the objective is to still be exercising in three, six, or 12 months.

Using a trained professional such as a personal trainer should help you to set realistic goals, orientate you to your environment, and minimise the negative aspects (such as soreness except) that you may experience when starting.

Many people make the mistake of thinking they’ll get fit then use a trainer, however it is much wiser to engage them initially.

Start your program by being conservative.

That means do only a few repetitions with a gentle resistance.

You can always do more next time, but you wont be able to if you hurt yourself in some way by over extending your capabilities.

Don't think that you need to do a specific number of each exercise in the initial stages.

The initial objective is to help condition your body, that is your muscles, tendons and ligaments to cope safely with the new load you’re putting on it, (which is very different to what they have been used to over a considerable amount of time)

Over time, by repeating the exercises correctly and becoming more familiar with your body and the directions that it needs to move in order to complete each exercise you can extend yourself by doing a few more repetitions and/or a few more exercises and/or with greater resistance.

Try to make the activities enjoyable as this will help you could continue the process over an extended period of time.

Another common expectation, is that your motivation will at times ebb and flow. It's natural that your level of enthusiasm and commitment will vary.

Remember, your objective should be to attend more often than you don't attend.

Another common mistake when starting a program is that people tend to change their diet, socialization, drinking patterns etc.

Whilst these are admirable changes to make in your life they will place extra stress on you and really are unnecessary to do all the one time,

It's far more manageable to make changes which are small and maintainable, things that barely impact on other aspects of your life and as such allow you to continue then without herculean effort.
Start with exercising on a regular basis. When that’s under control, make another positive change and so on…

Try to make your objectives realistic and moderate, particularly in the early stages of initiating a program.

Remember too, that life is often going to get in the road . by this I mean, things such as work, other commitments, sickness etc.

Your exercise program is not going "belly up" if you miss a session or two

In summary, start by doing less than you think you are capable of, less often than you want and gradually increase the load (number of sessions, resistance, and exercises) over the period of time.