Steering your Fitness Journey
If you search for ways to improve your fitness and health, the marketing algorithms will display advertisements from wearable devices, fitness 30 day challenges, diets for weight loss, and online programs promising to show you which exercises burn the most calories.
It's confusing and there's a lot of noise.
Whether you’re starting out or getting back on track, these timeless bits of advice will help you take better steps on your fitness journey.
Advice for Starting Out
Your progress will benefit much more from consistency rather than intensity, period.
The best workout routine for beginners is the one you can stick to. From workout classes at a gym nearby to walks in your neighborhood, start with a cadence and difficulty level that allows you to keep coming back.
In the beginning of your fitness journey, nearly all approaches (from weightlifting, to biking, to intramural sports) will produce results.
Spend less time time optimizing or sorting through details. There is no best gym workout for beginners. Get in the game, keep playing, and stay injury-free!
Now is the time to learn what you enjoy about fitness and healthy living.
Find what activities resonate with you, rather than what your friends, the ads, or elite athletes tell you to do. (If hiking jazzes you up, then leverage that as a way to burn calories. If working out in a group sounds exciting, join a fitness studio).
Advice for Getting Back on Track
Linear progress is a fallacy. Growth is incremental.
The process is iterative, and there are always steps backwards, missteps, and detours along the way. Always. (This means getting in better, then worse, then better shape again is the normal path).
Restoration and re-familiarization of behaviors is a more efficient process than first-time acquisition.
If you used to run for weight loss and then stopped, it’s still a low-barrier-to-entry option for you. It doesn’t matter if you used to do more mileage. You can walk, walk-jog, or jog a shorter distance to re-establish your habit.
Condemning yourself for falling off the wagon often is counterproductive to changing your fitness behavior.
Spend more energy valuing and appreciating the strength, courage, and determination you demonstrate whenever you get back on.
Lastly, at any stage in your journey, a mentor or fitness coach can help filter out the noise, provide more in depth advice, and help turn your plan into action!
In Health,
Tectonic Strength and Conditioning
