In my previous post, I covered the basics any beginner in fitness should consider before actually starting a workout routine. However, there are still some important things to consider when you start hitting the gym. In this post, I will cover the other essential aspects which will help you make your workout routine fruitful – the eating habits, before and after workout activities and food, the actual exercises, and how to create and gradually develop a proper routine. I hope this is helpful, enjoy!

The previous post (here) concluded with finding out what type of body you have – ecto-, endo- or mesomorph. Once you have this figured out its times easier to create a proper diet and get your eating habits in order.

Eating habits

I eventually found out that research about body types and exercises is far from enough to make sure you are doing everything right.  The progress you make can be lost fairly easy if your eating habits are not appropriate. What is an appropriate eating habit? That’s a hard question to answer and it pretty much differs from person to person, taking various factors into account like the body type, metabolism, intensity of workouts and so on. However, I think there are several things that everyone needs to consider to ensure that the hard work in the gym will not be in vain. That’s what I found out by reading up and experimenting myself. A good eating habit made me feel better and helped me by providing me with energy for the workout sessions.

What I found out

• Depending on your body type and other factors you need to make sure to include the appropriate ratio of carbohydrates, fat (the good one), and proteins. It is essential to provide your body with all of those important compounds to make sure it has the energy to survive the work out sessions.
• Needless to say, but I will say it anyway, bye-bye to the junk, greasy food.
• Providing the necessary vitamins and minerals for the body is important, but the quality of the food is even more serious of an issue. Organically grown, eco food is something which (contrary to most people’s believes) is quite affordable, way more delicious and times healthier than modified factory foods.
• There are several essential foods that you can include in your menu to make sure you are feeding your body with the right stuff and providing it with enough energy – avocado, coconut oil and any type of nut oils as a subsititute to butter and sunflower oil for cooking, salmon and tuna, chicken (the protein king), fruits and vegetables in general (especially bananas and berries), eggs, nuts – all of those provide the body with the right type of carbohydrates, fat, and proteins.
• You need to be sure you are eating more calories than you are burning (if you are building muscle that is) and when you start exercising you will most likely have to start eating double to what you were used to before. This was the case for me – after starting appropriate workout routine my body started demanding double the food.

I am personally still struggling with getting all of that right. I’m not using a proper substitute for sunflower oil and also for butter, but I did increase the number of vegetables and fruits in my menu, I cut the junk foot almost completely and I am doing my best to provide my body with the necessary ratio of carbohydrates, fat, and proteins. This also stimulated me to start cooking more and experiment with new recipes, which is quite exciting and another thing I am happy about. Check this master chef class chicken. It might not look that good, but it was delicious and trust me it was fairly easy to prepare.

Resources

There are millions of articles out there to give you suggestions for appropriate diets and its a matter of taste, creativity and will to come up with a delicious menu including the right ingredients. Of course, this doesn’t mean you can never eat pizza again, just maybe reduce it. Healthline and NerdFitness have some detailed, but quite interesting and well-written articles about how to combine food and fitness.

Before fitness

Before I go to the gym I usually warm up with some quick exercises like push ups, crunches and something I am not sure how to call but I believe people refer to it as a reverse push up or a triceps dip.

This thing

I found out that what you eat before you head to the gym can play a huge role in the success of the workout session. Always before I start being physically active I make sure to get some energy from the best possible sources. One banana is usually the thing I eat immediately before I start warming up – it contains natural sugar and protein as well as other healthy minerals to fuel me for a workout session. Another option if I am short of bananas is a handful of raw nuts. Almonds, hazelnut, pistachio, etc those things provide me with healthy fats and also protein and essential nutrients – a great source of energy.

Also, when I have the chance I try to eat a proper meal around 2-2.5 hours before a workout so I get the necessary energy and I also leave the food enough time to digest properly. If I eat a full meal before a workout I feel too full and heavy to get a proper session done and if I wait too long after I have eaten well all the energy is gone and I feel the hunger urging me to go home early. I had to learn this the hard way and sacrificed a number of successful sessions, but now I am trying to stick to that rule.

After fitness

After fitness, I usually feel exhausted and hurry to the kitchen. But I found out this is not a good idea, a light snack which will restore the protein and carbohydrates is the best option. This way you can focus on the full meal later when your body has recovered from the workout session and you won’t overeat because of exhaustion and hunger and ruin all the work you have done in the gym. I am guessing a raw protein bar can do the job, but I still haven’t tried eating those after a workout – I once bought one and I wasn’t sure when its best to eat it so I did it right before exercising. It gave me tonnes of energy and it was actually quite tasty, even tho it was a bit weird and the texture is really strange. But I am guessing this depends on the type of protein bar you choose.

The exercises

To begin with, I believe it’s a good idea to start easy and gradually keep increasing the number of exercises and weights. You need to find your own pace and start building up your stamina and capacity, which doesn’t come easy but it will certainly happen if you are persistent. As I have mentioned before it’s not a good idea to compare yourself with others, instead find the peace which makes you feel good and at the same time challenges you, stick to it and when you feel it’s getting easy start increasing it.

How did I do it

As a total amateur I naturally started with easier exercies and gradually increased the weight, intensity, and number of exercises. In the gym, I started with super simple stuff to help my body realize it is becoming active. I was doing around 4 or 5 types of exercises with low weights (around 15 and 20 kilos) and after a few days, I started increasing the number to 7 and the weights to 25 and 30. After a week I increased again and whenever I started feeling I can handle more I increased a bit again. This made me sure I am actually improving and motivated me to keep going for more. The same goes for the warm-ups. I started with 20 triceps dips, 15 pushups, and 10 crunches per session and I gradually increased them to 55 triceps dips, 35 pushups and 30 crunches per sessions. I do two sessions of each before I go to the gym and also during beak days so my body remembers it should be active.

One of the mistakes I did was that at first, I was exercising all parts of my body (which I found out is not the best idea). But I fixed it during the middle of the second week after I read more about the routines and I found out it’s better to exercise one part of the body a day and do it properly. This way the next day you can practice another part, while the first is recovering.

I strain one part of my body (up to 2-3 groups of muscles f.x chest; legs; triceps and biceps, etc) and I always finish my sessions with a light cardio. I started by 2 minutes on the bike or treadmill, 30 seconds break, and 2 minutes again, but again I gradually increased it and now I can handle two sessions of 6 minutes with 30 seconds break in-between. It is exhausting but refreshing. I am still not sure if it is better to start or end with cardio because different sources say different things. I tried both and for me personally ending with cardio is the better option, because if I start with it I get too tired and also my body type (the ectomorph) doesn’t benefit from too much cardio.

The routine

So I started doing a 2 days gym – 1 day rest routine, which for now works well for me. I exercise my upper body the first day and my lower body or legs the next one and the break gives me time to recover my muscles and recharge for the next session. If you are starting now and are wondering how to structure your own routine I suggest you just try it out, see when you don’t feel like you can handle another consecutive day and take a break. Find the cycle that makes you feel most comfortable and go with it, don’t forget you can always change it as well. Of course, the routine will also depend on what result you are trying to get, but the important thing is to find the balance between comfortable and challenging.

A good challenge to try out

I found a very interesting and useful article with a suggestion for a 4-week work out routine for beginners. I took it as a challenge and started following it exactly one week ago and I have to say I am pretty happy with it. Its fun and interesting, but challenging – the intensity is gradually increasing which is a bit tough but that’s the way it should be anyway. Here is the article for those interested. I find it exceptionally good because there are also pictures and videos with explanations how exactly to do the exercises the correct way, which is essential. Thanks to the article I discovered that I have been doing some exercises the wrong way and I managed to prevent a lot of damage by fixing my mistakes on time.  So far I am following it successfully with the difference that I take a rest every third day instead of second and I change some of the exercises with an appropriate substitute due to straining certain parts of my body is unhealthy and dangerous for me personally. There are thousands of helpful articles and routine suggestions depending on what you are focusing on, it’s a matter of research and consideration to find the one that fits you best and customize it accordingly.

This concludes my mini-series of beginner tips for fitness enthusiasts. I hope this was helpful for you as much as it was for me, I managed to learn a lot by undertaking this challenge. Which of the suggestions helped you the most? I will keep updating you whenever I feel there is something interesting to share about this topic. In the meantime, stay tuned for more weekly posts on various topics!

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