4 things you need to know before starting exercise
The time has come. You’ve reached the point where you’ve simply had enough. You’ve delayed looking after your health and your body far too long. Now it’s finally time for you!
So, what do you do? Where do you go? How do you start?
We often find when someone is “ready” to start training and making their health a top priority, they want to do it 100%. They’re so motivated and pumped and all they want to do is hit the pavement and sprint as fast as humanly possible. For a lot of people, it seems to be an ‘all or nothing’ approach which can be very dangerous.
They’ve come to us in a good mental place and the stars have aligned for this health kick to unfold. This is refreshing to see but what a lot of people aren’t ready for is the fact that their body is going to hold them back possibly more than their mind…well at least in the beginning.
LET’S INVESTIGATE WHY
If you’re in your thirties or forties and haven’t done much for a couple of years here are a couple of interesting facts you need to consider.
1. You’re muscles strengthen first, then your tendons, then your ligaments. You can only move as fast as your slowest person…which in this case is your ligaments, so you need to progress at a rate where you don’t upset the tendons or ligaments. A bad pain gets worse after you finish your set, a good pain or burn will begin to dull down after you stop.
– fact; tendons join muscle to bone, ligaments join bone to bone.
2. You’re not going to recover as fast as you used to. This sucks but very important to know. Active recovery sessions and quality nutrition are even more important now. Think walking, yoga, movement/mobility sessions, pilates.
3. You can achieve amazing results in a short amount of time under the guidance of a good coach. It’s not about being ‘smashed’ every time you exercise in the gym. We’re looking at small progression each day while factoring in the bigger and more long term goals.
4. You don’t need to push the limit every single session. If you do you’re going to break, maybe not immediately, but you will. High intensity training sessions and pushing max lifts all the time will tax your central nervous system and doing them too frequently each week will decrease your ability to recover and progress. Your immune system will be suppressed so there’s also a good chance you’ll start to feel lethargic and catch all the common colds going around.
That being said, everyone is different so you need to find out what works for you, which could result in some trial and error. A good coach can help you fast track this by cutting through the nonsense and setting you up with a personalised plan based on your goals and training history.
It’s never too late to start improving your health. All you need to do it take it slow and set yourself up for a long lasting lifestyle change.
Brent Coglan – Co Founder Perform Three Sixty