By Request: How do I get back to working out safely? (Part 1)

This month, I’m taking requests for things folks want to know about fitness (yes, please!  Ask me questions and I will blog the answers!).

I haven’t been exercising lately.  How do I get back into workouts safely?

 

I’m going to answer this one over two days, one covering cardio and the other weight training.

 

Good news:  bodies are made to move, so we don’t need to freak out about safety as long as we don’t abandon common sense.

 

(One way to answer this question is:  hire me.  My job is to help people reach their fitness goals safely and with as little yucky stuff as possible.)

 

Those of us who don’t want to rush out and join my client list can still get fit safely.  Here’s what I recommend:

 

Start small.  Maybe we’ve wasted six months watching cooking shows and eating DoorDash, but we’re not going to get back from that in one six-hour marathon session.  That is just not a thing.

 

I suggest starting with cardio in the form of a daily brisk walk.  It’s free, requires only decent shoes, and we all already know how to do it.  At first, I prefer seeing people be consistent rather than doing it for a long time:  every day for fifteen minutes is better than an hour twice a week.  We want to build a habit.  As far as intensity is concerned, we’ll know if we’re working hard enough if we can manage to carry on a conversation but singing would be out of the question.  If we feel like we didn’t do anything at all the next day, we probably need to go a little harder.  If we feel like we’d like to dive headfirst into the Advil, we might want to take it a little easier.

 

Each week, we can push a little harder.  The walk might get longer, or it might get faster, or it might incorporate a few hills.  Again, we want to monitor how we feel the next day and adjust as needed.  We also need to remember that some days just go better than others.  A poor night of sleep, some stress at work, an unfortunate breakfast can all affect our performance on any given day.  We need to have compassion for ourselves without totally letting ourselves off the hook.

 

Once we’ve got a cardio base, we can branch out into other forms of cardio if we like:  swimming, running, biking, ellipticalling (is that a word?  It is now.), dancing, roller-blading, whatever.  And we can turn our attention to the weight training side of the equation, which I will discuss tomorrow.