Fit Not Fad: Starting Exercise

Bianca lays down the basic foundation necessary to begin exercising the right way in the second episode of the Fit Not Fad podcast.

Bianca Grover: Hi and welcome to episode two of the Fit not Fad podcast! Last week we debunked some fitness myths such as spot reduction, turning fat into muscle, quick results and others. This week’s episode should be a good resource for people who want to start an exercise program but are not quite sure where to begin. 

We’ll go over some important components of a workout, how to set realistic goals, what equipment to use based on your goals and training principles.

Before we dive into things I would like to mention that this is not medical advice, and all the guidelines I’m providing come directly from the American College of Sports Medicine. Always talk to a physician before starting a physical activity program, especially if you’ve been physically inactive for a long time, have cardiovascular, pulmonary, orthopedic or metabolic health problems or if you are taking medication.

Setting goals

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about the fun stuff. 

Before we dive into exercise, we need to set our goals. Goal setting plays a necessary role in planning and drastically increases the chances of improving your health and fitness. This is why we have to put thought into it. 

Sure it’s easy to say “I want to lose 15 pounds” but that’s just that. It’s more of a want than a goal. Goals need to be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. If you build your goal using the SMART acronym, you are giving yourself direction and a plan on how to achieve the goal. I’ll give you an example. 

We’ll take the same sentence from before: “I want to lose 15 pounds.” How do we make it SMART? Take every letter and go over it. 

Specific identifies the what, where and how of the goal. Measurable ensures that the progress is clearly noted. Attainable makes sure that the goal is even realistic. Relevant focuses the energy toward methods that help achieve the outcome and time-bound explicitly states the date for the goal completion or the time frame. So let’s give this a try. 

I want to lose 15 pounds six months by exercising at a moderate to vigorous intensity four times a week, every week and by cutting soda from my diet. 

The goal is specific. Clearly we want to lose weight. Measurable because we know we want to lose 15 pounds. Attainable because six months is a realistic time frame to shed 15 pounds. Relevant because we tackled exercise and diet. Lastly, time-bound because we have the exact time-frame we need those 15 pounds gone. 

It might take a little bit of work to come up with a solid goal, but you will thank yourself. 

Preparing your body

Before you start your run or lift all the weight the gym has available to you, you need to prepare your body for exercise. The components that go into preparing your body for exercise are often overlooked. For example, hydration.

It is very important to be properly hydrated before, during and after a workout. But being properly hydrated can become a challenge when we don’t know what the right amount of water is. 

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 12-17 oz. of water at least four hours before exercise and approximately 23 oz. of fluid for every pound of body weight you lose from exercise. That would be one to two cups before and three cups for every pound you lose. Taking sips of water during exercise is acceptable. 

Stretching is another important component of a workout, unfortunately many people skip it. 

Stretching on a regular basis and prior and after exercise improves muscle elasticity, thus preventing injury like we discussed in the first episode. It doesn’t even have to take that long. 

There are many types of stretching, but what I advise people to do is stretch the main muscle groups you plan on using in your workout. Hold each stretch 10-15 seconds and repeat 2-3 times. 

Another similar concept is warm-ups and cool-downs. Warm-ups and cool-downs are basically the demo version of the actual workout, minus the weights. It can just be one set of every exercise you’re going to do, but unloaded. This will lead to improved performance and improved range of motion.

Training for your goals

Now that we went over the basics, let’s talk a little bit about training for your goals. 

If you’re looking to improve your cardiovascular fitness, cardio is your best bet. Running, swimming, walking, cycling, using an elliptical, basically any sort of physical activity where you are constantly moving should help improve your cardiovascular fitness. I’ll go over the guidelines in a few minutes when we talk about FITT-VP. 

Resistance training is the go to for muscular fitness, and there are many options and all sorts of equipment to help with that. But resistance training can yield different types of results based on how we manipulate certain variables. 

For example, if you’re looking for general fitness, you should train each muscle group for a total of two to four sets, eight to 12 repetitions each, using between 60%-80% of your one rep max. That is your one repetition maximum. The highest amount of weight you can fully complete a repetition with.

If your goal is to improve muscular endurance, aim for 15-25 repetitions with shorter rest intervals and no more than 50% of your one rep max. In order to train for strength, you’ll have to train based on your experience. 

If you’re an advanced lifter, you can start at 80% of your one rep max. But a novice or intermediate individual will have to start somewhere between 60%-70%. There is quite a bit of information on this.

Exercise Equipment

Based on where you can exercise - whether it’s at home or at a gym - equipment selection is important. We’ll briefly talk about kettlebells, free weights, resistance bands, medicine balls, stability balls and weight machines. 

Kettlebells allow for a lot of creativity with the exercise selection and don’t take a lot of room. They’re pretty easy to take care of but can honestly be a little dangerous if proper technique is not used, especially when you try and do kettlebell swings. 

Like any weight, they can get pricier as they get heavier. Free weights or dumbbells are similar to kettlebells in that aspect. They’re a little safer though, and you can pretty much do any resistance exercise using dumbbells. I think they are a fantastic choice and worth the money. I use them a lot in my training. 

Resistance bands don’t require a lot of skill, they’re cheap, very portable and allow for creativity. Unfortunately, you can only experience limited resistance if you only use bands. 

Medicine balls are fantastic, especially for core workouts. They’re cheap, easy to carry around and you can execute a decent amount of exercises using them. 

A big plus, in my opinion, is that you can use them in buddy sessions. You can do a lot of partner work using medicine balls as opposed to the other types of equipment we are going over. 

Stability balls are next and they’re a personal favorite. I actually teach a stability ball class and it’s a lot of fun, yet still challenging. There are plenty of things to do using a stability ball, they are cheap, just not very portable. They’re quite large. But who doesn’t like some bouncing around? 

And last but not least, we have the weight machines. You’re going to see them at the gym mainly because they are very expensive. The good news is that weight machines are perfect for beginners who still need to learn proper form and struggle with safety. 

Weight machines control the range of motion and load, allowing for safe performance and potentially high gains. They also help isolate specific muscles. That being said, I like using weight machines but only for certain muscle groups. I personally like them for legs and back, but everything else I choose to utilize free weights, medicine balls or other unique pieces of equipment.

Don’t limit yourself to only one type of equipment. Test everything and see what works best for you. I believe we’re ready to talk about a solid framework you can use to build a training program. We’ll talk about FITT-VP.

FIIT-VP

What is FITT-VP? FITT-VP stands for frequency, intensity, time, type, volume and progression. This is a framework for designing an effective exercise prescription for healthy individuals. This is the framework that good fitness professionals should be using.

The first component of the acronym is frequency and that refers to how many times a week the individual engages in physical activity. For example, the American College of Sports Medicine guidelines call for moderate intensity aerobic exercise (so cardio) at least five days a week or vigorous intensity aerobic exercise at least three days a week. You can of course do a combination of the two. For resistance training, the recommendation is two to three days a week.

Next up we have intensity, and this is basically where we explain what moderate and vigorous intensity are. Moderate physical activity is working out at a 40%-59% intensity, while vigorous physical activity ranges from 60%-84% intensity. This intensity is prescribed using multiple methods, typically involving your heart rate response or your rate of perceived exertion, but are not limited to these.

The first “T” of the acronym stands for time. This refers to the total time that individuals should engage in physical activity weekly. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity, and these are weekly. For additional health benefits such as weight management or fitness goals, moderate intensity exercise can be bumped up to 300 minutes a week, and vigorous physical activity can be bumped up to 150 minutes.

Type is the next letter in the acronym. And this is a pretty self-explanatory one. Some examples of different types of physical activity include interval training, stop-and-go sports, rhythmic, continuous exercise targeting large muscle groups, and they’re all beneficial.

The last 2 letters of the acronym stand for “volume” and “progression”, and are typically controlled by a fitness professional. They’re a bit more advanced components, but an important takeaway worth mentioning, is that in order to keep making progress with your exercise program you have to increase the challenge. 

You do this by manipulating the frequency, intensity or time, keeping in mind that if a variable goes up significantly, another has to come down. 

Volume for aerobic exercise and volume for resistance exercise are very different. When we do resistance training we talk about volume in terms of sets and repetitions. They’re manipulated the same way, if one goes up the other must come down. But this is a conversation for another time. We have to get the basics down first and we have a long way to go.

Thank you guys for tuning in and listening to this episode. I hope you learned something useful and I hope you end up applying it too. Share it with your friends and spread some joy. We’ll have a new episode in two weeks, with a special guest too.