The hardest thing about undertaking any new fitness regime is that it feels like a mountain. So many people fall at the first hurdle when they start exercising after the new year because they have taken on too much, too soon. When it comes to achieving success in any fitness regime, it’s about the following four components.
Get the Basics Right
The fact is you’ve got to learn the basics of anything in order to succeed at it. Yes, there are people who look to anabolics to build muscle quickly, but if you want to create natural strength, you’ve got to get the simple things right first. This means finding the right exercises that are going to benefit you, based on factors such as your weight, your goals, and your current fitness level. If you try to do too much too soon, you are not going to view it as an achievable goal and so you give up. The basics need to be in place; you need to learn to crawl before you can walk so you can learn to run and jump later!
Focus on Form
It’s vital to get out of the mindset that when you are in the gym, you’ve got to go big or go home. So many people in gyms have disproportionate muscles because they’ve been lifting with improper form. Look at those people in the gym whose shoulders appear constantly hunched forward; they’ve been trying to force too much onto their bodies that they have had to compensate somehow. You need to focus on form to get things right, which means that you’ve got to lift lighter so you can do it properly. In order to progress gradually and organically, you need to focus on lighter weight so you can get the form right.
Train Your Balance
People don’t think about things like balance or grip strength, but training your balance is vital, especially when you start training with heavy weights. There’s a lot out there that focuses on functional fitness, and the fact is that when it comes to things that occur in the real world, you need to have a stable cage in order to do most of them. Therefore, training your balance and focusing on your stabilizer muscles are going to help you in an exercise like a squat or deadlift. Look at your feet and your hands; what can you do to train them better? Something like a press-up, where you are balancing the weight equally between front and back, can benefit here.
Be Patient
Finally, if you want success in your fitness regime and you want to get fitter and stronger, you’ve got to realize that it won’t happen overnight. You can realistically put on 2 pounds of muscle every month, as long as you stay consistent. This means exercising at least three times a week but also having impeccable nutrition and perfect sleep. Do anything that upsets one of those, and it will take longer to achieve your goals. Rather than aiming to get yourself fit for Christmas, aim for next summer and it would be perfectly achievable!
