There is no
“one size fits all” plan and while following a generic plan can help you get
started, it is often a frustrating path. The best investment you can make is to
get yourself a trainer. A trainer who will design and individualize a training
and nutrition plan specifically for you, your goals and needs. You will start
out doing things the RIGHT way, instead of just randomly going in and doing
whatever you feel like when you feel like. The benefits of having a trainer
also includes accountability (which is very important), having someone there to
show you the correct technique for each exercise (also very important – poor
form leads to injury, ineffective and inefficient training, and is detrimental
overall), and teach you about what you are doing and why, so that you can
understand everything, with the eventual goal of being able to know what to do
for yourself. If you don´t want to invest in a trainer you should have a good knowledge in the field of nutrition, biology and kinematics.
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Training
Learn and
understand the importance of resistance training, cardio should not be the
focus (in all honesty, you do not even have to do cardio to get the figure you
want, but as you get more experienced with training or want to improve your
cardiovascular fitness, then it can be beneficial to include).
Weights
Anything from two to four
days of training per week is ideal to start with, especially in the gym. Each
body part should be trained once a week, giving it plenty of time to recover
before the next training session for the same body part.
Resistance exercises you
should be doing are multi-joint, compound exercises, as they use more than one
muscle, and are the most effective for not only building muscle, but also in burning
fat. Compound exercises require more body parts to perform than isolation
exercises. The best compound exercises that you can do are the squat and the
deadlift, as they use pretty much every muscle in your body. Other compound
exercises that are good to include are the power clean, bench press, shoulder
press, pull-ups, dips, and calf raises (the only isolation exercise that’s
really good).
Complete at least two
exercises for each muscle group, with four sets of 6-10 (even up to 12) reps
per exercise, with 1-2 minutes recovery in between. Always lift as heavy as you
can for the number of reps you are set; the weight should challenge you... if
it is too easy, you are not doing yourself any favours.
Be sure that you always use
good form for EVERY exercise; otherwise you are putting yourself at risk for
injury. All reps should be controlled and with good form. It is not about how
much you can lift, but how well you lift. You WILL get stronger as you keep at
it.
An ideal training time is
40 - 45 minutes; otherwise you become too catabolic and can end up losing
muscle, which is not desirable.
So that your body does not
get used to your training and stop adapting, every 4 - 12 weeks make small
adjustments to your weight sessions. Adjustments do not have to be drastic and
simply increasing the weight for the same session from one week to the next is
a change that can make a difference. Other adjustments can include changing the
order of exercises in a session or the number of sets and/or reps that you do
for an exercise (and it only needs to be one exercise changed at a time, small
adjustments over the weeks, not a complete overhaul of everything!).
Cardio
If you ARE
going to do cardio, make it as efficient and effective as possible. If you do
High Intensity Cardio or High Intensity Interval training, you can get the
same, if not BETTER results with a brief 12 - 20 minute cardio session instead
of spending two or more hours a day doing it! If you feel that you need to do
more cardio, then you can add a couple of additional 20 - 30 minute moderate
intensity sessions to your training week. Skipping, stair sprinting/running, or
rowing, are the next highest calorie burners after sprinting.
Flexibility
Don’t
forget about adding in some flexibility exercises, ideally 20 - 30 minutes a
day on the days you train, preferably after you have done either cardio or
weights, while your muscles are still warm, as this decreases the risk of
injury. Stretching makes sure that you can move more freely and easily and
helps elongate the muscles, ligaments, and tendons, for overall joint health
and fitness.
Consistency
Understand
that CONSISTENCY is essential; nothing is achieved without it. If you miss
days, don’t stress over it; there is no need to “make up” for them either by
doing more on another day - just forget about them and get back on track the
next day. Remember the 70/30 Rule: As long as you do everything right 70% of
the time, the other 30% allows for when things don’t go as planned because life
gets in the way or some other reason.
Efficacy
Never
forget that when it comes to exercise more is not always best! You want maximal
results for minimal time. You also need to remember that some of this is
experimental, and about finding what works best for YOU, since everyone is
different and responds differently to different exercise programmes.
Let´s start!
