New to Exercise and Fitness? Where to Start

Lately I've been falling short in my fitness endeavors. Missing workouts and slacking when I do work out. While I am by no means new to the fitness game, these recent weeks (dare I say months) have given me more insight to being a beginner than ever before.

I'm not going to pretend like I understand the psychological struggles of trying to get into fitness for the first time in your life, or in a very long time. But I have learned quite a bit about approaching fitness once taking a considerable amount of time off.

Recently, I've made the frustrating error of returning to lifting with the same thought process as I left it. Unfortunately my body wasn't in the same kind of shape I thought it was, and now I'm limited by "injuries" or aches. That being said my first piece of advice for someone getting into fitness is to start slow....and I mean VERY slow. Physically you might be able to push up more weight in your squats, but when starting out, take it slow and increase your repetitions. Get used to being in a squat (for example) and stretch out those muscles for a couple weeks before pushing for weight.

This is a great time I your life to discover what is going to work best for you. Perhaps lifting isn't your thing. Maybe it's swimming. Maybe it's running, or climbing, or any number of sports. Take your time and experiment with different sports and through this adventure you'll find yourself living a more active lifestyle, which is really going to help, no matter where you are headed.

This will also help you not get burned out too fast. Variety is a great thing, and I personally have experienced get benefits of being involved with different sports. For example, currently, my right quad hurts when I engage it with much more than my bodyweight, but thankfully I don't only lift, and this is a great opportunity to focus on my climbing while my legs heal.

For most people this is all very redundant. But if you are actually reading this with a true interest in getting into fitness...my only real advice is to get out there and try things.