Recommended introductory fitness training courses for novices

For fitness novices who have no exercise foundation at all, the three types of courses with the highest priority in the entry stage are: introductory courses on basic movement patterns, low-intensity whole-body circulation courses, and general sports rehabilitation courses. There is no need to rush into high-level Internet celebrities Pamela and Insanity at the beginning, and there is no need to directly copy the five-point training plan of fitness bloggers. If you thoroughly understand these three types of classes first, you can avoid at least 80% of common sports injuries for novices, and your subsequent progress will be several times faster.

When I was helping a friend tidy up some time ago, I came across the 12-session muscle-building personal training class he bought last year. He stopped after 3 classes. The reason was that the coach asked him to bench press a 15kg barbell. After the bench press, his shoulders hurt for a week. Later I found out that he didn’t even know the concepts of shoulder sinking and scapular stabilization. In fact, there have always been two completely opposite opinions in the fitness circle: one group believes that "novices don't need to pick up the movements, start moving first, and you will find the feeling if you make a mistake." The other group insists that "if the movements are not standard, just don't practice. If you practice incorrectly, it will hurt the body." Objectively speaking, both sides are reasonable - if you just want to do it every time. If you start to sweat when the weather moves, it's okay to take a walk after a meal or dance a square dance. However, if you later want to practice strength and reduce body fat, and don't plan to stop practicing for two months due to injury, spending 3-5 classes to understand the four basic movement patterns of squatting, pushing, pulling, and hinges is definitely a sure-profit deal. To choose this kind of class, you don’t have to find a coach who has won a bodybuilding championship. Try a trial class first: if he urges you to add weight throughout the whole process, pushes you to get a new year card, and doesn’t even remind you to buckle your knees in during squats, just pass. Look for someone who will squat down to adjust the angle of your feet and ask you " "Do you feel tightness in the back of your thighs during this movement?" Even an ordinary personal trainer with more than 100 per session is enough. If you don't want to go out, Bilibili Jeff's basic movement series and Keep's zero-basic movement correction classes are all ready-made, free and paid, and the wealth is up to you.

When you can complete standard bodyweight squats, kneeling push-ups, and bent-over rows, you can arrange for a low-intensity full-body circuit class. A reader asked me before, do novices have to run for 3 months before trying strength? In fact, it is really unnecessary. The whole-body circuit class just brings together low-intensity aerobics and basic strength. For example, in a 20-minute class, arrange 4 movements, do each for 40 seconds and rest for 20 seconds, and cycle 3 groups. It can not only break out a good sweat, but also help you consolidate the sense of exertion you learned before, and you will not be so tired that you can’t get up the next day, which will dampen your enthusiasm. If you like excitement, go to Super Orangutan for the entry-level BodyCombat and Vitality Aerobics. You can dance along with others and still make a fortune. If you are afraid to stay at home, Pamela’s 15-minute Happy Dance Exercise and Saturday Ye’s low-intensity full-body burning You can keep up with fat. If you really can't keep up, just stop and rest for 10 seconds. Don't do hard concave movements just to catch up. I once had a colleague who took a group class to save face. Even if his legs were weak, he still had to do lunges. In the end, he twisted the meniscus and took a rest for less than half a month. The gain outweighed the loss. Oh, by the way, if you prefer running, swimming and other purely aerobic exercises, that’s totally fine. You don’t have to force yourself to do strength training. Exercise that you can persist in is a good exercise.

Many people think that rehabilitation classes are required only when you are injured, but this is not true. The most common mistake for novices is to sit for a long time at work and have rounded shoulders and hunched back. As soon as they practice, they will sharpen their chest muscles and do abdominal crunches. Finally, they will suffer from high and low shoulders and low back pain. I used to think that any posture correction was an IQ tax. It wasn’t until my rounded shoulders always got stuck when I bench-pressed that I went to a rehabilitation specialist for two weeks to make adjustments, and my weight increased by 5kg, and I didn’t know it was really effective. Of course, if you don’t feel any discomfort when you exercise, there is no need to spend thousands for a full set of posture assessments. Find an online general course that costs a few dollars and learn what normal delayed onset muscle soreness is, what the sting of a strain is, and how to relax the tense trapezius muscles and how to tighten your core correctly. It will be enough for you for more than half a year. Some people also say that there is no need for novices to learn these things and wait until they are injured. This is true, but it is not him who is in pain.

To put it bluntly, there is really no need to make it so complicated for newbies to get started. I have seen too many people buy thousands of fitness equipment and apply for an annual membership card worth 20,000 or 30,000 yuan at the beginning. In the end, they went there twice and then left it to collect dust. On the contrary, those who only spent 3 hours a week at the beginning, figured out the basic movements first, and slowly found their favorite exercise, can persist for several years. When it comes to fitness, slow is fast, really.