I found that nowadays many people are eager to systematize their fitness routine but feel lost initially as to what to do, what plans to follow, and how to execute. And many start by randomly searching online and imitating others' training routines. However, a workout routine is not generally applicable to everyone, but needs to be personalized and considers one's goals, body conditions, lifestyle, time, etc.

So, first thing first, you should know yourself before diving into anything.

What to Know?

A. Figure out your main purpose for this workout plan.

Whether you would like to lose weight, gain muscle, or just simply develop a habit of exercising, having a specific goal helps to push forward your plan, measure progress, and stay motivated.

B. Check your body condition.

You have a general scope of how your body performs in daily life. What is recommended is to take some self-tests:

1. How long it takes to run 1.5 miles (2.41 kilometers)
2. How many standard push-ups you can do in one sitting
3. How far you can reach your arms forward while sitting on the floor
4. Your waist circumference
5. Your body mass index

Notice that, these are not standard checklists, they are more of a starting point for your fitness journey to help keep track of your progress and make comparisons.

C. How much time would you spend exercising?

Evaluate your lifestyle: do you have a full occupation? how much time and energy are you able to dedicate to your plan on a daily basis? Fitness is not something accomplished in an action. It takes time to transform your body and for you to see the changes.

D. Where to go?

For a lot of beginners, home is a great place to start. Personal trainers at gym are also a great help to get you started on what is basic ( if you have pennies to spend~)

Use SMART Principle to Plan

1. Specific - be specific on what you want to achieve
2. Measurable - allow yourself to see progress in numbers
3. Attainable - do not rush into result, have your goal achieved realistically
4. Relevant - do you need assistance? what do you lack and need to achieve your goal?
5. Timely - keep track of your progress and make comparisons to feel proud of yourself

What to Train?

There are many sports and exercises to get started with, and even maintaining a good amount of walking time helps our health. So take it easy about getting a professional workout style or perfect workout exercises.

Here's a sports pyramid that levels out some common sports and exercises with intensity, frequency, and suggested training duration.

1. Static Muscle Training

• High intensity
• 2-3 times/ week on average
• 45 mins to 1 hour for one session
• One muscle group at a time

Weight Lifting

Recommendations for rest time between sets:

• 1-3 Rm - 3 to 4 minutes
• 4-7 Rm - 2 to 3 minutes
• 8-12 Rm - 1 minute
• 13 Rm + - 30-40 seconds [Rm in weight training means: ex. push one then fully exhausted, then the weight is 1Rm for you]

2. Aerobic Exercises

• Medium to high intensity
• 3-5 times/ week
• 20 mins + for one session

Tennis, Basketball, Jogging, Swimming

3. Stretching Exercises

• Medium intensity
• 3-7 times/ week
• 30 to 45 mins

Yoga, Pilates

4. Daily Exercises

• Low intensity
• Everyday
• As much as you can

Walking, Doing Chores, Climbing Stairs

Make Exercise Fun

Getting started and then making workouts a routine can be difficult. Your brain would find all the excuses to stop you and convince you to give up. Other than taking it easy, you can also change up your plan once in a while or try something completely new. You might just find the one you enjoy the most.

Some Fun Activities

• Frisbee
• Paintball
• Hike a mountain
• Skateboarding
• Kayaking
• Jump Rope
• Trampolining
• Clubbing (🙃)…

Or, go make yourself a 30-day Body Combat challenge.

For those of you who are not familiar with Body Combat, it is a great adaptation of HIIT which allows you to train body coordination, agility, and tone muscle - a combination of boxing, martial arts, and Muay Thai.

Instructions on how to get the map above:

• Go to the right toolbar [Format] and find the [Tree Table] structure;
• Branch out subtopics from the main topic (Your challenge title) as much as you need;
• Separate the subtopics which you edit to be [Week1 to Week 4] and branch out the rest subtopics intp 7 blocks and set them to be [Day 1 to Day 7];
• Make the subtopics below [Day1 to Day 7] to be the specific challenge names for each day;
• And finally insert some progress stickers to check for your completion status.

Food Food Food

Don't ignore your nutritions.

Whether you want to lose weight, gain muscle, or get back to a healthier lifestyle, you should always take care of what you eat, and don't let your body down.

• Protein is vital for both weight loss and muscle gain. On average, the recommended protein intake per day = 0.8 to 1 gram x your body weight (kilogram). And great sources of protein mostly come from white and red meat - beef, chicken, and pork, and for vegans and vegetarians, tofu, eggs, fish, dairy foods, and beans are great choices too.

• Also, make sure you eat your greens. Vitamins and fibers from veggies are not only essential for nutrition balance but also important for your gastrointestinal motility.

• And carbs too. They are the first thing that gets your body up and moving. Do not cut it out of your meal, and even if you are losing weight, make sure you eat good carbs like grains and tubers veggies, such as sweet potato and pumpkin.

I know we are really busy with our lives. Most of the people have a full occupation and find it hard to make every meal at home. But try to limit the frequency of takeouts and eating out. There are many healthy recipes online where you can find your food inspiration. And plan your daily meal in a fun way to avoid cutting off the enthusiasm in food preperation. See it as a daily pleasure and enjoy taking care of yourself.

You should try using Matrix structure to plan out your meals in a week like this and print the menu out paste it on your fridge.

Exercising is like brushing your teeth. How to prevent your teeth from rotting? Go to the dentist four times a year? No, your teeth will fall out that way. You keep your teeth by brushing them daily.

The same goes for working out, it is not a burst of energy that gets you where you want to go, it is consistency and perseverance. So, we don't need to worry too much about the result, take it easy, and let your body enjoy the improvement in the process.

Last but not least, I did not mean this blog to teach you how to work out scientifically and professionally. There are many ways to discover what we feel comfortable about lifestyle. And exercising is one of them. Don't set a time limit to achieve a body goal, try to immerse in and find joy in it.

Reference

https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/how-to-build-your-own-workout-routine/

https://www.delish.com/

https://www.jianshu.com/p/dea45611b084

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/get-involved/find-an-event/the-exercise-challenge/30-ways-to-exercise

https://www.freepik.com/