What are the tips for beginners to get started with fitness

The core skills for beginners to get started with fitness are all centered around "being able to keep going". There is no need to start with a complex training plan or strict dietary standards. Lower the threshold to the lowest first. Being able to persist without getting injured is better than anything else. I once took care of a junior student who had just entered college. He saved up two months of living expenses to apply for a gym membership. On the first day, he followed his strong friend in the dormitory to bench press 60kg. He stopped as soon as the weight reached his shoulders. He suffered a rotator cuff strain for two months and never set foot in the gym again until the gym membership expired. This kind of example of being eliminated right after getting started is really too common.

The first question that many people struggle with when they first enter the gym is whether to hire a personal trainer. This has always been quite controversial in the circle. Some people think that newbies who hire personal trainers simply pay an IQ tax. Nowadays, there are a lot of free action tutorials and training plans online, so you can learn enough from them; there are also meetings for veterans who have been practicing for five or six years. It is recommended that if you have enough budget, find a certified coach who does not sell classes for 3-5 classes, and understand the logic of the core compound movements. You will encounter many fewer pitfalls than trying to figure it out for half a year. In fact, both views are reasonable. Which one you choose in the end depends on your own learning ability and budget. There is no absolute right or wrong.

If you really want to explore on your own, don’t just follow fitness bloggers and do high-intensity intervals like “lose ten pounds in seven days”, and don’t copy the differentiated training plans of professional players. They have been trying to figure out the basics of the body with dumbbells for more than ten years. As soon as you touch the dumbbells, you will follow the training of “chest on the first day, back on the second day, and legs on the third day.” After training each part, you will not feel any soreness and swelling on the second day. It is a waste of time. In the novice stage, the nerve recruitment ability is poor, so practicing full-body compound movements is the most cost-effective. These movements are like the basics for learning to cook. You must first understand the tomato scrambled eggs and steamed rice, and then study carving and molecular cuisine. It is easy to overturn the whole routine. Every time you go to the gym, spend 10 minutes dynamically warming up, then do 4 sets each of squats, chest presses, and bent-over rowing. Stop 1-2 times before exhaustion in each set, stretch and relax for the remaining 10 minutes, and leave in 40 minutes. It is much more efficient than hanging around the gym for two hours. A while ago, I helped my neighbor's mother make an entry-level plan. She would go to the gym three days a week after picking up her child and practice these three movements for 40 minutes. After two months, she could carry her 20-pound baby up to the fifth floor without gasping for breath. Before, she complained of sore legs after walking two stops.

Don’t be too fussy about movement standards. There used to be a lot of debate on the Internet about “can the knees of a squat go over the toes?” and “should the deadlift have to be completely straight?” In fact, there is no universal standard. Everyone’s leg length ratio, ankle flexibility, and hip joint flexibility are different. As long as there is no tingling sensation in the joints and obvious soreness and swelling in the target muscles when you perform the movements, there will be no big problem. Don’t force your joints to copy the standard movement diagrams on the Internet, but it will easily lead to injuries.

In terms of diet, there is no need to put shackles on yourself from the beginning. Don’t stock up on protein powder and chicken breasts as soon as you start, and eat boiled vegetables every day. You don’t need to be so accurate in caloric deficit or surplus during the novice period. You can just drink the full sugar milk every time. Change your tea to sugar-free, skip the take-out oily soup, and eat an extra bite of lean meat or eggs at each meal. Your progress will be twice as fast as that of someone who practices blindly, and it will be easier to persist in the long term. After all, you can't just lose all the fun of eating after practicing for three days, and you will definitely give up after a week.

Finally, let’s be honest, don’t compete with the numbers on the scale every day. Many people gain muscle mass and lose fat during the novice period, and their weight may not change much, but their waist circumference becomes smaller, their pants become looser, and they no longer breathe when climbing stairs.