Hey, Gorgeous!
Congratulations on wanting to do something good for yourself.
Your life is about to change for better in so many ways and I envy you that you are still don’t know about that 😊
This is the first part of a series of articles that I have prepared for you about everything you’d need to get started with your regular workout routine.
I am Rumi and I have 25 years of training experience. For the last 10 years training has been my profession, along with motivating people to start working out and then make it a lifelong habit.
It may sound incredible, but I haven’t always worked out regularly + I’ve eaten really bad. I have tried all kind of diets on myself. Sometimes I’m not willing to do things as well but I do workout with great desire and pleasure. This is exactly what I want to pass on to you, to workout with such passion and desire and have fun at the same time.
Working out is your time to work for yourself!
I am here to support and inform you. If you have questions that are not included in this article, send them to me and I will complete it. Here is my email.
Here we go:
More doesn’t mean better
Start with short workouts, may be at beginner level, because muscle fever can be very painful and demotivating. If you get up from the chair the next day with pain and you need time to move, it means that the training the day before was too much for you. Muscle fever is normal, but it should be light and positively reminding you that you have worked out. The muscle fever is your friend and it shows you if you are on the right track with the weight you chose for yourself.
How short should the workouts be?
If you workout 5 days a week, you can start with 20-30 minutes a day, having 2 days a week complete muscle rest. During these 2 days off take a walk. It is a little known fact that walking burns much more energy than training. Keep in mind that the harder and longer you train the more your appetite increases, which can lead to more eating and gaininг weight. Your goal is to find the right intensity for you so you’d have a pleasant muscle fever, and to workout as short as possible, so that you achieve your goals and do not increase your appetite. Not that it’s bad to have a bigger appetite, but my experience shows that people expect to lose weight from training not the opposite 😊
If you workout 3 days a week, the workout can be 40-50 minutes without long rest between the intervals. We are talking about concentrated 40-50 minutes with enough rest to catch your breath and your heart rate to drop down so that you can talk. So breaks of less than 1 minute between the intervals.
You can see a beginner’s program here , 5 days a week, 20 minutes a day. It’s a home workout filmed in my living room. I do the whole workout with you and all the time I remind you what is the right performing technique of each exercise.
If you go to the gym it is not worth it to waste at least 1 hour on the road to workout only 20-30 minutes. To fully use your time it is better to workout concentrated for 40-50 minutes (breaks between intervals 30-60 seconds maximum) 3 days a week + add 2 days a week for 1 hour of walking. The walking can be a 30 minute walk to work and then a 30 minute walk to your home. It’s not necessary to be 1 hour non stop walking but a total of the day. If your work is not within walking distance, you can park (get off the public transport) away from the office so you can walk. Climb stairs instead of using the elevator. In the beginning do not climb more than 6 floors. It is important that the intensity is gradual so that there is no strong muscle fever.
Proper technique, what is it, is it important?
It is extremely important to workout with the right technique because this way you are protecting yourself from injuries. Training can also have a dark side – the injuries! During the first 6 months, I recommend to workout with a coach who explains the proper performance technique. It really matters where your knees, elbows are or shoulders are.
In my workouts I always explain the right technique and I’m showing you what is wrong and right because this is extremely important for your health. A minor injury sometimes takes a whole month of recovery and more severe ones can cause you a discomfort for a year.
It’s funny that the correct technique is actually very useful and can be applied in your daily life. You find that tying your shoes is much easier if you do a squat. Taking a heavy bag or box from the floor becomes child’s play because it is like deadlift – an exercise that is extremely useful for the back. Carry your child with the muscles of the back, not just the arms. Getting off the floor from a lunge is much easier and protective against injuries.
Proper performance technique unlocks a force in your body that you didn’t even suspect you had. You are stronger if you include larger muscle groups and your whole body especially the abs.The abdominal muscles are involved in almost every movement but my practice shows that most people do not use them . When you learn to activate all the muscles in your body, it responds with pleasure to every movement and weight. Proper performance technique opens up a new world of movement, so rich and full of mobility and flexibility. I can’t wait for you to feel your body in a new way, alive, strong and longing to move.
What type of a workout to perform?
From my experience, for beginners , the most suitable time-saving and giving fast results are the training in rounds . For example, instead of doing 3 hip exercises one after another, then 3 arm exercises one after another, etc., you perform one for hips, immediately after it one for arms then another one and so on. Once you are done with all the exercises – this is 1 round of the workout. After that you do a second round, repeating all the exercises in the same order. It’s good to do 2-3 rounds in total.
Round workouts allows the muscles to rest without actually resting. You can actually train without a break and at the same time rest, here’s how:
If you perform 3 hip exercises one after another you should rest for 1-2-3 minutes after each exercise so that the muscles can recover and perform the next one. Muscles need time to recover before you can load them again.
However, if you do exercise for another muscle group immediately after the butt exercise, the butt actually rests and recovers by that time. This is the beauty of the round workouts. You rest while you train! 😊
Do I need strength or cardio workout? And what’s the difference?
Yes, you do! Both have health and esthetic benefits .
The cardio develops the heart and the aerobic capacity, which means that you can suddenly rush after the child or after a handsome man 😊and this will not make you run out of breath or feel out of shape.
The cardio burns more energy (calories) comparing to the strength workout for the same amount of time, but please don’t do only cardio! Running and jumping burn more energy than squatting, for example, but squatting causes muscles recovery after the workout and this burns energy all the time after.
Strength workouts make your muscles work and adapt all the time to the new weight as you gain more muscle mass. Relax, I know what you’re thinking! Most women do not want to gain muscles.
My work with over 10,000 clients has proven that women like it much more if they gain 1-2-3 kg of muscles than if they do only cardio .
If you do not want to gain a lot, use dumbbells up to 5 kg. Women in bodybuilding work with heavier weights. Or look at my photos, I have been training with 2 dumbbells of 5 kg for years and I am not like a bikini fitness model, but tight and fit (and modest 😊).
Strength exercises are important precisely to gain some muscle mass which gives a tight and fit look. Women who do only cardio may be thin, but not tight . A tight body is a body with muscles, we are talking about small muscles. Muscles do not allow the fat over the body to shake so much when you walk. In addition, muscles are an active mass which the body burns energy to maintain while you are just sitting on the couch. Fat is not an active mass and the body does not burn energy to maintain it. So, if you gain 1-2 kg of muscles, you burn energy while lying down and recover from training, genious, right 😊
What equipment do I need?
In term of clothing, you can train with anything that is comfortable for you and does not restrict your movements. T-shirt with leggings (or sports pants) and sneakers – that’s it.
Not that anyone will workout in jeans, but I will just give an example with them. Jeans do not allow you to squat properly, especially if they are inelastic. They restrict your movements and are not suitable for training. All clothes that do not allow you full range of motion are not suitable. Full range of motion, for example, is when you raise your arm above your head, the largest movement you can make. If your clothes do not allow you to make the biggest movement you are capable of, then they are not suitable.
I train barefoot because I train at home. Training barefoot is the most natural thing in the world. BUT in gyms you are not allowed to train barefoot and you have to take this into consideration. Also our feet have gotten tender from walking in shoes that support the arch. I wear shoes with a soft and absolutely flat sole (vivobarefoot), which bends a lot and allows me to fold my toes.
I was used to walking daily on 6-8 cm heels and then slowly and gradually I switched to a flat sole. For the first 6 months I had a huge discomfort and pain because my feet were not used to be in a completely flat position. I’m sharing this with you if you want to start training barefoot and you haven’t walked on a flat sole so far. It’s better to workout in sneakers for the first 6 months. Then use them when you have jumping and running exercises and the rest of the time don’t. After a while try to jump barefoot. This gives your body time to adapt to the new position of the feet.
If you train at home like me you need a set of dumbbells of 3 kg each. No, it’s not a lot, I guess your handbag weighs more and you carry it around all day. However, during training we want to work hard, so 2 handbags of 3 kg are ideal 😊
If 3 kg is still a lot for you, I recommend you to fill up 2 bottles of 1.5 l with water and workout with them for the first 2-3 weeks. Beginners very quickly increase strength and endurance and very quickly reach 3 kg of dumbbells, so do not waste money on dumbbells of 1 kg.
Did you notice what I said above: beginners gain strength and endurance very quickly! Yes, this is true, because if so far you have not worked out even the smallest workout will give a huge impact.
And let this be the finale of the first part: the privilege of being a beginner is that you see progress very quickly. 😊
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