How To Start Your Fitness Journey: A Guide for Beginners
As you probably know by now, I’m The Gym Starter, better known as Adam and I find it shocking that I haven’t written this article sooner.
I’m working on my own self compassion with this…a theme that will be key to this article…so if I can forgive myself, I’m hoping, you can too dear reader.
There was a phrase I was taught at Drama School when it came to writing:
Which along with self-compassion is one of the most important tasks for someone who wants to “start their fitness journey”
Before we begin, I just wanted to let you know that I have indeed written a Workout Guide exactly for you. It’s called The Beginners Bodyweight Workout Guide and is made up of 10-minute workouts, to do at home. It has 56 workouts in there and you can get this totally for free.
If you chose to acquire it, you are also acquiring me as your friend. This brings me joys untold but does come with a warning. The warning being: I will send you things. Helpful things. Things like Podcasts, Articles and thoughts…these thoughts might not always be appropriate, but in truth, isn’t that what makes friends friends?
To send me a friend request (and to get The Beginners Bodyweight Guide) just put your email in here:
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR:
How To Start Your Fitness Journey:
Step 1: The truth behind being able to start
Step 2: Why is it called a journey?
Step 3: Releasing Expectations
Step 4: Understanding confidence
Step 5: Understanding there is no right/or wrong
Step 6: What Should You Do In The Gym?
Step 1: The Truth Behind Being Able To Start
At the point of which I am writing this…the number one hit on Google for this topic (a position I am hoping to overthrow) outlines 6 points about starting.
One of which is “create a vision board”.
I remember doing this once because I was told to do it. It didn’t connect me to my dreams, it just annoyed me - because it forced my brain into the world of comparison, and it constantly reminded me of where I wasn’t - not where I currently am.
Maybe I’m just bad at Vision Boards - and if that is your thing, then great, but I don’t think it offers much help here.
Starting a Fitness Journey might just be one of the hardest things someone is going to do.
And I just don’t think a Vision Board is really going to help someone overcome their fears.
Fears of:
Failure
The Gym Environment
Judgement from others
Resistance from loved ones
Overwhelm of information
Getting it wrong
It taking too long
and one of the biggest fears:
Not being good enough
For it is within these topics that we have to truly find the answers.
I could tell you all the practical stuff in the world:
Find a Gym you like
Ask for help from Personal Trainer at the Gym
Start with X workout
Eat-in a Calorie Deficit to lose weight
Get a Vision Board
But none of that is really going to create the lasting change you need until we deal with the fears that you have about fitness.
Fear is:
F alse
E xpectation
A ppearing
R eal
And having practical help, will not alleviate these false expectations, they will simply suspend them - and when they come home to roost again you will have fallen into the same pattern as before of starting then stopping and feeling like a failure.
The issue with allowing fear to dominate in the short term is that it feeds the fear in the longer term. By not addressing your fear when you first feel it, you give it more and more power over time, to the point it will dominate you more than it needs to.
All of those fears I listed above are very real, but the more you find the courage to work against them, the less significant the fear will feel.
And it is my job to help you find the courage to negotiate those fears in order to help you start your fitness journey.
You are here now. You are in a safe space.
Just this weekend I felt the need to reach out to an old client of the Strong & Confident Program.
She had her fears. She was very new to exercise and working out. She had never worked with a Coach before - and even though our time came to an end about a year ago, just the other day I sent her this:
This should always be the ultimate goal. To continue being active, to continue getting stronger, to be able to get rid of your fears, so the changes last forever. So they last the entire length of your journey… also known as: Life.
Step 2: Why Is It Called A Journey?
Just quickly, every time I put a Schitts Creek GIF into one of these articles, it slows me down, because I then have to go back and watch it all over again…HOW GOOD IS SCHITT’S CREEK?
Ok, I’ve now managed to prize myself away from Netflix. I need to be honest with you.
I have a love/hate relationship with the word “journey”.
But the more I see, and I am nearly 10 years into my Personal Training Career the more I understand why we use this word, and why I am currently in a phase of loving it more than hating it.
It comes down to the human experience. We live to experience, not to simply achieve.
In fact, the more you focus on achievement, quite often the more elusive it becomes.
Because what happens is you close yourself off to everything the journey has to offer.
A journey undulates.
A journey has a beginning (the topic if this article)
A middle
An end
A journey will be hard at times.
It will also be easy at times.
You will want to stop
You will want to speed it up
You will have to be patient
You will have to contend with things both in and out of your control
A journey changes as you experience it
It has phases
And it also guarantees you stay in the moment.
You have to be present.
If you want to get somewhere - you can’t rush the process of getting there. It will only ever take as long as it takes.
In Intuitive Eating: 4th Edition Evelyn Tribole states:
“We call it a journey because there is no judgement attached”
I might have paraphrased, but I like the effect of these words. The more we can disassociate with judgement from ourselves with regards to fitness, the more present in the human experience we can be.
I say we because this is something I have to work on as well.
Each month, I set my clients a monthly challenge - for February 2022 its to read a book by a psychologist. The book is by Dr Julie Smith, and is called “Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before”
In the section addressing the topic of self-acceptance, she explains that the “work is never done”. She reveals that on the journey of living a life of self-compassion, you do the work every day to live in align with unconditional self-acceptance; you never arrive.
And it is through the same lens that those who are successful in fitness view their fitness. It is this that makes it a journey for them.
And it is this that is the key to getting your journey started.
Step 3: Releasing Expectation
I talk about this very often with fitness - the biggest thing that will perpetuate your feelings of failure is your expectations of the result.
Its a very frustrating dichotomy:
We have to have a goal to get started on a fitness journey, but these goals can also be the reason you give up.
And it all comes down to your expectations.
Society at large has done a fantastic job on selling you the unachievable dream in terms of fitness. I’m not here to sour your hopes and dreams about getting started, but a realistic starting point for you would be to take what you want to achieve and then at least double the time frame in which you think it will be achievable.
By lengthening out your time frame, you will give yourself more space and time to allow your fitness to develop properly. The human body doesn’t change quickly, and more importantly the faster it does change the harder it is to sustain.
Many diets are built on your willpower, not habit transformation,
And your willpower will run out. As your life gets stressful. And your life will get stressful.
And when that happens, you won’t be able to live up to your expectations - which creates more stress, and the cycle will continue until you finally stop your fitness journey.
All because you tried to do too much, too soon and it just wasn’t sustainable.
Nor was it flexible.
My birthday is in early February. This means every new year I know it is futile to set huge expectations of fitness because |’m going to enjoy my birthday, and I won’t be able to keep up with a 4x a week program in the Gym at that time in my life.
For you, it could be lots of your friends are getting married, the school holidays, the Christmas/New Year combination or why is it that every single human in your family seems to have their birthday in the same month?
When these events which happen every year coincide with the 12 week period you gave yourself to “lose the weight” you obviously aren’t going to sacrifice making memories for going to the Gym.
And nor should you have to.
The only time you think you should have to is when you have far too strict a time frame to achieve your goals.
When you open up your time frame you create flexibility in your fitness journey to allow for your life.
This is crucial…because when it comes down to:
Life vs Fitness Journey
Life ALWAYS wins.
You should never have to pip one against the other - this is another reason we call it a journey. It has to have the ability to work with your life, not versus it.
Step 4: Understanding Confidence
Now that we have managed to take away your expectations, legitimised your fears and strategised on how to help you overcome them as well as actually figured out why it’s called a journey and how that will scope your attitude towards your future fitness I’m hoping you will feel a little more confident about starting.
Which is great.
And a good sign that you are setting yourself up for success, and not for repeated failure.
But confidence is a fickle thing.
And when you might actually be faced with a little more resistance it can evaporate quickly on us.
I’ve had many clients say to me over the years that they wished they had my confidence - and for many years I was never really sure where my confidence came from.
Then I heard something that bought it all into focus for me.
And I want you to remember this too.
Between where you are right now….and the confidence you wish to have is one word:
Courage
Now it’s important to remember this quote when discussing courage:
Courage comes in many forms. Sometimes it is the Braveheart-Esque bashing of the chest very masculine energy (FYI: I don’t have a great deal of that energy).
Sometimes it is having the courage to lead yourself with self-compassion.
Sometimes it’s having the courage to execute on the small things each day you said you would.
Confidence is something we must build at all different times in our lives. It is not something inherently given to you by God.
One reason I have confidence is because I have always been able to build a new comfort zone in new environments.
We can’t get confident unless we become comfortable. But you must keep levelling up your comfort zone to continue feeding your confidence. When you stop stretching out, when you stop trying to rebuild new zones of comfort in your life, you end up in what is known as a fixed mindset - and when you are challenged with a new environment or a new prospect ahead of you, like a fitness journey, you have no recent experience in building a new comfort zone, and so it seems all far too much to handle.
You stay where you are - and your confidence isn’t fed.
To build each new zone of comfort in your life you must have courage. This can be built slowly, or quickly, it really doesn't matter, but we do have to keep in order to keep driving our confidence and to not withdraw.
For example, at home I was always a very confident person, in my comfort zone and felt very capable at school…then I got into Drama School.
The first two years of my life at Drama School, yes; two years, I was low on confidence. I was out of my comfort zone by a long way and had to very slowly rebuild it alongside trying to figure out how to find out who I was in the world of a very elite Drama School full of extremely talented people.
I honestly never felt confident at Drama School, and in my abilities there, until my third year.
But I didn’t shy away. It was my dream coming true, I wasn’t going to stay at home and not show up each day. I just focussed on looking for my wins, trying to develop my ability, crafting my talent into a skill and rebuilding a comfort zone for me there on the first floor of a dingy building in Farringdon, London.
And that took courage. My courage took patience, it took self-compassion and it took a lot of failures and it took a lot of time. But I knew with every experience, both positive and negative, I would be able to make it my comfort zone - and when I managed that - I was a different person altogether.
And this is something I have done time and time and time again in my life.
The more comfort zones I have built, the more feedback I have in my life that I can figure it out. The easier it is to build again, and again, and again.
The above image shows where growth and therefore the building of your confidence lies.
Imagine the image as stepping stones over a river. You start on the first one, then once you are balanced and comfortable on that stone, you stretch your leg out, and move onto the next stone.
When you over stretch, you fall in and begin to panic.
But each time you stretch, you then find comfort again, and then you know you are ready to stretch once more. Avoiding panic.
Each Zone on the above diagram comes with words attached:
Comfort Zone: Unchallenged, Safe, Low Risk- Low Reward, Easy, Stable, Secure
Stretch Zone: Education focussed, Willing to learn, Find Purpose, Conquer Objectives, Anticipating, Excited
Panic Zone: Panic, Annoyed, Stressed, Lacks Self Confidence, Frustrated, Fed Up, Fearful, Effected by Opinions, Excuse Driven, Overwhelmed
We exist in all three zones in very different aspects of our lives. But let's convert this model into starting your Fitness Journey…because that is why you are here isn’t it?
In terms of Fitness, the Comfort Zone is not a good place to be. You will find your workouts uninteresting, you will find your journey monotonous, and progress will feel incredibly slow.
The Stretch Zone is where I try to keep all of my clients on my Strong and Confident Program. I think one of the most important aspects of a Fitness Journey is that of education - and I spend a lot of time trying to educate my clients on what they are doing. A fitness journey is a skill, and you can’t get better at that skill unless you learn more about it, and practice what you are learning.
My Weekly Forms for instance, which my clients use as a journal focus their minds on completing objectives, trying to get them excited about the progress they are journalling each week, and keeping them focussed on the purpose of living an active lifestyle and how they balance that into their lives.
Now, without a doubt, many of my clients miss the stretch zone and end up in the panic zone. They can feel overwhelmed, try to do too much at once, many of them lack self-confidence as a result of literally “over-stretching” all the time - and as you can imagine this undermines their ability to actually grow.
My job as their Personal Trainer is to write plans and workouts and check their form on exercises.
My role as their Coach is to keep them in the Stretch Zone.
And as you start your Fitness Journey - this will be your role too.
Don’t get overwhelmed by all the information, don’t worry about the result.
Focus on the process, not the outcome. The process is within your control, the output is not.
And by remaining in the stretch zone, you will stay rooted in the process, and build your confidence naturally. And as you grow, the way in which you stretch yourself will grow as well - ensuring constant development and growth throughout your Fitness Journey.
Step 5: Understanding There Is No Right or Wrong
Fitness can be a very overwhelming topic.
Wait: Where have you seen that word before in this article?
Overwhelm puts you into the Panic Zone.
Overwhelm can make you feel paralysed.
Overwhelm can make you feel like there’s no possible way you can do it.
And I’m sure whenever you have looked into “The Best Meal Plan” or “What Exercise is best for Fat Loss - Cardio or Weight Training” or even “How To Lose A Stone” the sheer amount of conflicting information has just made your brain go:
This is why truly getting to grips with the understanding that there is no right or wrong, just exploration is crucial as you start your journey.
Worrying about things that are well out of what you need to worry about isn’t going to help you.
At all.
To see whether or not you are achieving what you want to achieve with your fitness journey, all you need to do is the following:
One action every day that moves you further down the road
This could be increasing your step count day on day.
This could be increasing your step count on rest days, and doing your workout when it is planned.
This could be having a protein shake today.
This could be increasing your Vegetable intake.
Or my personal favourite:
Increase your sleep
And each day as you string together new behaviours you will make far greater progress, far quicker, than if you focus on what is right, or what is best.
I would go so far as to say, as long as today, you build in what you did yesterday - that is all you ever need to do really.
This doesn’t mean keep doing more.
Sometimes building on yesterday can mean having a rest day to allow the foundations to settle. It could mean listening to The Fitness Solution Podcast to educate and get a greater understanding of where you are at.
It could mean working out again.
You see, the options are actually limitless when you stop focussing on what is right and wrong and start focussing on what you want to explore.
And with limitless options, your journey will be full of colour, intrigue and excitement.
Step 6: What and How To Do. Not Why To Do It
This quote is another of my favourites.
A lot of people when setting someone up on a fitness journey will try and get you to focus wholly on your “why”. Try and pull those emotional heartstrings:
You know the kind of stuff I mean:
To be able to play with my children
To feel more confident
To feel comfortable in photos
To feel sexy again
To reduce my tiredness
To improve my mental health
To reduce my feelings of anxiety
To get strong enough to fight a bear in the woods
The list goes on and on and on.
And I’m not demeaning why you want to do something, but when we attach whys to actions we frame them through judgement.
“To be able to play with my children” which could actually be “I’m too unfit and lazy to be able to enjoy time with my children”
“To feel sexy again” which could actually be “To feel less self-conscious and to feel desired by the opposite sex. To reduce my loneliness and to hopefully find some happiness through the attachment of another human”
And the truth behind the simpler forms of the whys is loaded with self-guilt, lack of self-compassion and brutal self-talk and inner feelings that will only focus you more on them.
You know why you are wanting to start a fitness journey - and really - you only need to use that as a motivator once.
That was your motivation for searching for this article on Google.
Now it’s about practical application.
Now it’s about building progress.
And making that progress permanent.
This is why, as you start your Fitness Journey it is vitally important you focus on “What to Do” and “How To Do It”.
What and How takes away the judgement of the “Why” and places you into a Stretch Zone.
Whereas focussing on the “Why” puts you into the Panic Zone.
Look at this practically. If you went to the Gym because you wanted to lose weight, a perfectly fair and reasonable goal, but you associate the action of going to the gym solely with why you are there.
“To lose weight” which could actually be “To feel more attractive to the opposite sex and to feel less judged by society”.
The Gym then becomes the place where you are going to get fixed, where you are going to try and remove your feelings - and that is not a nice energy to be working with when you are working out. It’s an energy that makes everything so much harder because you are focussed far too much on your negative self.
Therefore get focussed on the Practical.
What Should You Do In The Gym?
Honestly? Do what you enjoy.
That is your number one priority. As long as it is safe.
Don’t do what I have done on a couple of occasions.
Like fall off a treadmill at 18km/h. Yup I did that.
Try not to load a Deadlift Bar up unevenly by 20kgs, when thinking you’re going for a PB. Yup. I did that too.
Another thing I have done in the Gym that bought me no enjoyment. Enjoyment is key.
Because enjoyment is sustainable.
And…
Enjoyment is moveable. It’s so very easy to get caught up in optimal strength training for “best results”.
But if you hate doing it…you will never get to those “best results” because you won’t be able to do it for long enough.
Added to that by starting with what you enjoy, you can then build from there. What you enjoy can change over time as you get stronger, see results and keep consistent. What I enjoy now in the Gym is vastly different to what I enjoyed 3 or 4 years ago.
And that’s ok.
Because that means what I am doing right now is optimal for my results - because in four years time I will hopefully still be going and loving the benefits attached to being that consistent with my movement.
Let me tell you a little secret.
I used to get really caught up on what was the “ideal” thing for my clients - and it used to get in the way so much. Strength Training and Fitness for the vast majority of people isn’t that complex or needs to be overthought.
I used to feel so insignificant, and so unknowledgeable because I didn’t know the secret order of exercises to progress someone over a year.
I didn’t know what it felt like everyone else seemed to know…and that made me very worried indeed.
But there is no secret. Which is why I didn’t know it.
In fact…the thing that every other trainer seemed to know only got in the way of how they worked with people. They overthought it too much also.
The most optimal thing in strength training for the general population is showing up, and doing something that you enjoy.
Then from there, we can look at workouts that will progress you over time.
But that’s not as hard as it sounds. And don’t let it worry you.
The key principles to What to do in the Gym are:
Show Up
Enjoy what you do when you show up
Work on improving your form
Work on increasing the intensity of what you do in the Gym (heavier weights, longer runs, more sets and reps)
I have two workout Manuals I give away that work on these compelte principles.
The Confident and Strong Manual is a month of Gym Workouts and Home Workouts designed to be quick, accessible and straightforward for you.
They take care of all of the principles outlined above and will really help you start your Strength Training.
The Beginners Bodyweight Guide has a slightly lower barrier to entry and can be done at home. The workouts are just 10mins a day and include guided walks by myself as well - which is one of the most underrated forms of movement a human can do.
To get these manuals then all you have to do is put your email address in below and I will send the straight to you.
What’s Next?
I really hope you found this article useful, and you feel a lot more comfortable about starting your journey.
I also have some other articles you might find useful to help flesh out how to go about starting your Fitness Journey.
Thank you so much for being here - it means an awful lot to me.
Have a great day…
Coach Adam