Walking up to the building was intimidating. It was grey and dull with serious looking people. Inside heavy metal blared from the sound system. The only thing you could hear over the music was the clanking of weights... serious weights.
It was 1991, I was 14 and just joined Golds Gym in Lynbrook, NY. It was the beginning of my fitness education.
Here are some important principles for getting in great shape that I learnedalong the way:
1. The company you keep. Get a group of friends with similar fitness goals. This will have the biggest impact on your level of fitness. A quality group of training buddies will motivate you, challenge you, and hold you accountable to training.
Throughout high school I trained with a group of 4 guys. We made every training mistake possible, did lots of stupid things, laughed a ton and had a blast. Importantly, we never missed workouts and even with all our mistakes, managed to get in shape.
2. Consistent effort is the key to fitness. Principal #1 drives consistency. Consistency is more important than any program design, exercise, gym layout, etc. I workout outside year round with minimal equipment and stay in shape because I am consistent. That's my secret.
3. Due the least amount of work necessary to create a change. Any more effort is wasting time. This is really important when you are starting out. There is no point in subjecting your joints to long workouts with too many sets, when you could accomplish the same results in 45 minutes and 10 work sets.
4. Stick with bodyweight exercises and compound movements. This includes all varieties of the following: push-ups, pull ups, inverted rows, handstand pushups, pistol squats, jump squats, lunges, dips, squats, deadlifts, and presses. Unless you are a bodybuilder, most isolation exercises are a waste of time. And, I promise your arms aren’t going to get any smaller as long as you are doing the exercises correctly.
5. Cut out junk calories. This includes soda, candy, chips, energy drinks such as Gatorade, andbread.
6. Add a finisher to the end of your workout. These are a great way to melt fat and increase your general level of fitness. Finishers are short (around 10 minutes) bouts of intense conditioning. Finishers includes; hill sprints, burpees, plyometrics, sled work, farmers walks and other high intensity explosive exercises.
7. Focus on strict form, keeping every muscle in the body engaged during exercise. This is a lot harder than it sounds. It will limit the amount of weight and repetitions you can complete when you first start. In the long run good form reduces the risk of injury and helps develop strength to levels not achievable with sloppy form.
Use these principles as a guideline and create a program that works for you. I will provide an example to help get you started.
Warm up: Jump rope 5 minutes followed by light stretching for another 5 minutes.
Day 1:
Push ups - 3 x 15 pause at bottom and top of each rep
Pull ups - 3 x 8 pause at top.
Jump squats - 3 x 20
Finisher - 100 yard hill sprint x 6
For days two and three use a similar set up (push, pull, legs, finisher), just change the exercises. Change the routine every 6-8 weeks to keep challenging your body.
Do this consistently and you will be in shape in no time.
Take action and start training Outdoors!!