Ah the sobering light of dawn – returning from your first work out after vowing and declaring your new years health and fitness resolutions to anyone who would listen while you drank your way merely to the bewitching hour on New Years Eve. Sound familiar. If this is your first bout of exercise for a while you will either be feeling fantastic and enthused for your next training session (at least until your delayed on set of muscle soreness kicks in) or you will be feeling like you have been run over by a bus and couldn’t move as the bus was backing up.
Here are some general starting guidelines for your new years training resolutions. Start off slow, allow your hormone, cardiovascular, neuromuscular and skeletal system’s enough time to adapt to the new stresses you are placing on them. Twice a week (intensity dependant) for the first two weeks is more than enough. Add another session every two weeks there after until you have either meet your time commitments or your training goal schedule. Pick one or two of your most important fitness components (i.e. strength, flexibility, cardio fitness…) and work on those to start with. Your training schedule should look like waves on the lake, pecks of hard work to reach training goals and troughs of recovery time. Make sure you are eating plenty of unprocessed food (if it comes in a packet it’s processed) this will help you recover faster. Stretch before and after (and during if you need to). Drink lots of good quality water (good quality water should be pollutant free and have 300 mg /L of total dissolved solids (.033 * body weight)) per day an extra liter for every hour of exercise and 300mls extra for every glass of alcohol or caffeinated drink you have (the toilet may be your best friend for the first two weeks, but after that your body will adjust). NB: if your urine is not clear (unless you are taking a multi vitamin) you are not drinking enough water. Do not train if in pain or to tired. Take your heart rate every morning for 1 minute, take an average of that. If you ever wake up feeling tired or run down check your heart rate. If you are 10 beats or more above your average take the day off to recover.
If your itching to get started, but are not sure where to begin, try lots of different training types of exercise and listen to your body – if it feels good do it if it feels bad – don’t do it. If you get really stuck seek some professional help in the area you want to get started in. And remember training is like life – it’s not about finishing, it’s about enjoying the journey – and everyone has his or her own journey to enjoy.