My personal fitness experience is 6 years of martial arts and additionally 5 years of various weight-lifting and cardiovascular training experiences.
My goal for this article is to give you a summary of all my previous experience in 6 simple steps. Ain't that handy?
Also, the purpose of this article is to enlighten the community on how fun and easy it is to start exercise and achieving the results you want!
Decide for yourself what you want.
First of all you need to decide what exactly it is that you want. Do you want to feel better and healthier? Do you want to have more energy to spend time with your kids? Do you want to increase your physical performance in a specific sport? Or do you just want to get rid of that beer belly? (or as my friend calls it, remote control holder :-)
Decide for yourself what it is you really want and make it CRYSTAL clear. Imagine how you would feel if you already achieved this. Imagine what you would be able to do with your new body.
This is not a quick fix; this is a change of lifestyle!
I promise you, if you commit to doing your best and using your muscles to the fullest I guarantee you that you will see amazing results within 30 days!
Motivation
Why is motivation so important? People often confuse enthusiasm with motivation. If you start a new project you can feel very enthusiastic about it. My coach once told me, “When you have no enthusiasm, when you are discouraged, when things looks the bleakest and you STILL take action towards your goal, that is motivation.” Now I ask you, my dear reader, what motivates YOU? What can make you go that extra step that you normally wouldn't even think about doing?
This is what I call, self-researching. You need to research what works on you and experiment with different things in order to get the result that you want!
Burning fat & building muscles
To achieve the best possible results, a good combination of cardiovascular exercises AND muscle/strength training is needed. Our goal is to burn fat and build muscles!
Most people know that you can burn fat by doing cardiovascular exercises. But why do we want to build muscles as well? Simply put the more muscle you have, the more fat you are able burn.
Muscles are the tissue that contains one of the highest levels of mitochondrion in the body. Mitochondrion is what turns fat into fuel. This is the reason why many health officials encourage people to build muscles, strength training, or any kind of muscle building workout. If you are new to muscle/strength training a great way to start is to use your own body weight as resistance.
So in summary more muscles = more potential to burn fat. You can see your body as a furnace; the bigger furnace you got (muscles) the more coal (fat) you can burn!
Sometimes you can see people do muscular/strength training only and that's it, but I say: What's the point of having a big furnace if you never use it?! It's like having a Porsche and never going faster then 50 MPH! Get that fat burning action going! :-)
Also remember to rest properly after a workout. If a muscle is sore, don't exercise it until it has completely recuperated. Rest and relaxation is equally important as the workout part! However if the muscle isn't sore, exercise it until it is :-)
Normal diet
One of the best things of doing regular exercise is that you can enjoy the food you love! This is not a diet program!! Don't even try to starve yourself by eating too little, your muscles need the proteins in order to be able to recuperate properly. And as we know, we need the muscles to burn fat.
Also on the opposite is true, don't overeat! Eating too much must also be avoided. I can recommend eating slowly and letting the food make its way to the stomach. Ever felt tired after a big meal? If you eat too fast the stomach doesn't get a chance to register the food. And by the time you feel full there's even more food on its way down to the stomach. This why you feel!
So in summary, eat normally!
Have fun!
In order to achieve long-term success you must have fun while doing this! Maybe join a team sport, or take up martial arts (highly recommended :-)) Soon you will see the results of your hard work. You will feel more energetic, you will feel stronger and faster! And that's when the fun starts! Even going out for 10 minute run in rain will be fun because you know you will get the results! That is one of the reasons why exercise is cool, because everything counts! :-)
Experiment with different things that makes your exercises fun and compelling to do!
Remember your vision
At times you will loose your motivation, your muscles will hurt and you will have a bad day. At these times it's important to remember why you are doing this, take a look at step 1 again. Imagine yourself reaching your goals, imagine how that would feel. Think about how you will be able to express yourself with your body. Think about how good it feels to get all that energy out. Say good and positive things to yourself.
In the end that's what counts. You don't fall of your bike until you stop peddling. So keep going! You will thank yourself for it. Persistence prevails!
Last words
If you decide to follow any of these steps, keep me updated! I'd love to hear from you. Thanks!
Until then, take care and stay passionate!
