Starting my fitness journey and my tips for keeping it up

When it comes to fitness and working out, I haven't exactly been consistent throughout my life. I actively avoided all exercise in high school and early adulthood and have gone through bouts of exercising and then inactivity mainly due to recurring health problems in more recent years. So I am by know means an expert, just sharing what I find is working for me.

Saying that 8 weeks ago myself and my husband took up a special offer at a new local gym, were we signed up, both deciding now was the time we were going to work on our health and fitness.

Tips for keeping it up 

My top tip is to sign up with a partner or friend, both myself and my husband have attended the gym before in the past, on our own, and both found we regularly ditched workouts due to lack of motivation. Going together has been so good for our attendance, and for our performance, as we both encourage and motivate one another.

Find a gym you like, seek recommendations from people locally, and defo spend some time in your chosen gym before commiting to a contract. We go to a small old school gym, which is a much nicer environment than larger corporate gyms we have attended in the past. Everyone is friendly and the owners are on hand for advice when needed.

Find exercises you enjoy, I find cardio, especially the treadmill bores the arse of me, so I've started boxing, punching the punch bag, or sparing with my husband, as it gets my heart pumping, and makes me sweat and I love it. I still go on the treadmill but for less time now I box.

Don't push too hard to soon, and put yourself off. There is know shame starting on the lowest weight on the machine, you can only get better, and you are far less likely to hurt yourself.

Do your research, ask for a programme from your gym, getting an expert to advise you on what machines and exercises to use to achieve your goals. Youtube is a great free resource for finding new exercises or tips on technique.

Keep track of your stats, you will soon find you can lift higher weights or complete more reps. This I find really motivating, as I am competitive and rather then trying to compete against someone else, I find competing against myself really rewarding.

My goals this time around are much simpler, not lose a certain amount of weight but to just feel better, get fitter and to feel leaner and firmer. Although going to the gym is not an overnight way to change your body and takes commitment, already in just a few weeks I can notice changes in my body, I'm definitely getting stronger and can notice some definition on my arms.

I will write another post, probably at the end of the year and let you know how I'm getting on. So if that interests you, keep your eyes peeled for that.

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