For many years I had a complicated relationship with fitness. I knew if I was to start exercising, it will be good for my health and for my looks. But my motivation was constantly going up and down.
The first problem was that I did not know what to do. I would either run on the treadmill if I was in the gym. Or do a random combination of exercises at home.
Because I did not exercise consistently and properly, I wasn’t seeing enough results to keep me motivated. Does any of this sound familiar? Don’t worry, it is completely possible to change. Take me as an example. I was on and off exercising for 19 long years. And now, once I got into it properly, I get all cranky if I don’t get my 4-5 times of working out per week.
But enough about me. If you want to start exercising but:
– feel out of shape
– don’t have the motivation
– don’t have the knowledge and confidence to turn up at the gym
– feel discouraged from starting to exercise in the past and then giving up
Then have a look at the following 4 ways to start exercising when you don’t know how to and don’t really want to.
All 4 options have these in common:
– they help you to start exercising gradually and building up to more
– they don’t require prior knowledge or practice
– they have an element of either consistency and/or accountability to keep you going
1. Walk every day for NO more than 10 mins per day
This is very important. You can walk every day but you cannot walk for more than 10mins.
This rule is brilliant and works like a charm. I didn’t come up with it though. It was the amazing author of Atomic Habits. Check out the book for more practical tips on how to start small and build powerful habits.
2. Attend one class per week
I like group classes for so many reasons:
– you can walk in on your own and it is completely normal
– there is an instructor so you get the guidance you need if you are just starting to exercise
– you can try different classes and find out what works best for you
3. Follow along videos
Follow along videos are a super convenient and completely free way to start exercising from the comfort of your home.
There are many great options on youtube. My personal favorite is Nourish, move, love. She has options for all levels of intensity with variations for beginners and advanced. And frankly, I just love her energy. It keeps me going.
If you choose follow along exercise videos at home, I have 2 pieces of advice from my personal experience:
A. Make it a regular habit. I used to skip so many weeks because I would think: this is so easy and available, I can just turn on the video and start exercising at anytime. But often “anytime” ended up as “no time”.
Decide on a number of times per week and do your best to always stick to the same day and time. For example, Monday, Wednesday and Friday after I drop off the kids at school. Or whatever works for your schedule and family.
B. Choose which video you will exercise to in advance by making a list of saved for later videos. I adopted this habit after I wasted a lot of the 20 minutes I have dedicated for a workout by just sitting on my mat and browsing through videos trying to figure out which one to do.
4. Download an exercise app
From all the exercise apps I tried, I liked Sweat the most:
- Huge variety. There is weight training, home workouts, barre, Pilates and so on. You also have a choice of different trainers and difficulty levels
- You can choose workouts on demand using a filter with many different criteria or sign up for a more lengthy training plan
- There is a free trial. Just download it and try it for a week. It won’t cost you anything if you don’t like it
- I also really liked the badges you can earn. It gives a great sense of accomplishment
- You can also share your completed workouts with friends on social media. It adds a layer of accountability and it was nice to get cheered by my friends for my efforts
If I have to mention one thing that I did not enjoy as much – the exercises are shown by avatars instead of live recordings of the trainers themselves. So it is difficult to understand the right way to perform an exercise if you are a beginner.
But even with this small drawback, I would still highly recommend the Sweat app. There are plenty of other useful resources online to help you with learning good form.
Just start exercising. The rest will fall into place.
If you rarely/ never exercise and feel out of shape or if you started and stopped many times before, don’t feel discouraged. You don’t need an expensive gym membership or fancy workout clothes to start exercising.
Just start small, try different things and allow yourself to fall in love with the process. If it happened for me after 19 years, it can happen for you too. I promise.
