We’ve all made mistakes on our fitness journey, its part of the learning process. You have to find what works best for you. Everyone's different so we each have different training, nutrition and lifestyle needs. Also with the abundance of false information out there it can often confuse a lot of beginners and even people who have been training for a while into following a plan that isn't optimum for them.
So I had an idea when I first started my page, and that was to ask people what they wish they knew when they first started fitness. Hopefully to help beginners understand that it’s perfectly fine if it doesn’t work out first time and also help them avoid the flaws in the fitness industry at the moment.
These are the things I wish I knew:
1. I wish I understood that what works for someone doesn’t necessarily work for you, I needed to find a program and way of training that I enjoyed rather than just copy what the latest trend was.
2. Knowing about things like a calorie deficit and protein requirements for muscle growth would have saved a lot of time of doing endless HIIT and wondering why I wasn’t losing fat.
3. Finally that leg training is important and actually really enjoyable when done right, so you shouldn’t skip it or neglect glute training.
Enough of me I asked my followers on Instagram (go follow me if you're not @cmcg.fitness) and these are the results I got, hopefully you found this beneficial and check out their accounts as well, because they're all awesome people.
@dailyjlh - 'I wish I would have known that following a set plan (be it by your own doing, or with a PT) is so much more beneficial for progress than just walking into a gym and faffing about on machines. Also compound movements are key - don't fuck about too much with silly stuff like banded crab walks or kickbacks.'
@_miaactive_ - 'Don’t go all out straight away or you'll over do it, and have to take time off. Your fitness page is for you and your progress, so don’t stress about it!'
@_bethjohns - 'I wish I knew that your weight has 0 correlation to how fit you are.'
@sianadeyfit - 'Set realistic goals, compare yourself to nobody but yourself.'
@georgiah_fit - 'That you won't lose muscle from taking a short period off the gym!! I was overtraining badly!!'
@dani.fit.pt - 'I wish I knew that most people mutually respect beginners rather than judge them because everyone starts somewhere! I also wish I knew I didn't have to feel so guilty when I ate a cake or pizza and that it wasn't making my workouts pointless by doing so.'
@bethmfitness - 'People don’t actually judge you in the gym, you just feel like they are. Never be afraid to ask how to use equipment or how to perform exercises, that’s what the gym staff are there for. If the free weight section is intimidating for you, include one free weight exercise into your session and slowly increase the time spent in there to gain confidence.'
@loz_fitnista - 'Eating less doesn’t mean you’ll loose weight, so starving yourself isn’t the option. I didn’t know the importance of protein, carbs and fats.'
@_ab.gets.abs - 'I thought the way to lose weight was to force myself down to half the amount of calories I should actually be consuming, big mistake.'
@jessie.eatss - 'Learn the basic movement patterns first rather than just doing random exercises/going round the gym using random machines. Don’t just copy anyone because in reality some people are a lot better to learn from than others.'
@kplum_fitness - 'I wish I was educated on why to do certain exercises not to just do them, knowing the benefits is key. Oh also….FORM!!!!!! Sooooo important. Also why we rest and the use of protein.'
@linnsfitnessjourny - 'That not everyone is watching you. So just do you and don’t feel afraid to go to the gym. Even if you are doing ‘men’ exercises. Girls can bench press too!'
@zero_sleeves - 'Concentrating on doing one thing well at a time, whether that be nutrition, drinking water, step count, regular workouts etc. and then slowly building on top of this by adding things in. Don't think you suddently want to change your life, set loads of goals all at once you will most likely fail in the first week. You need to treat yourself as a beginner when you are starting out, not an expert. And as so set smaller and easier goals first and then develop these as you move along. Achieving a goal gives you motivation and motivation allows you to achieve another goal. Failing at a hard goal or too many goals that you have set gives you a negative response!'
@mgfitness.go - 'I wish I knew that it’s not beneficial to work myself to exhaustion every workout. Rest and recovery are CRUCIAL to healthy growth and maintenance.'
@mp_fitness12 - 'It takes consistency and patience!'
@katiedoylefitness - 'Portions of food/what is healthy vs overeating.'
@__nfit - 'I personally wish I'd known how important rest was and how beneficial it is to overall progress. I spent a lot of time when I first started feeling guilty if I took a day or two off! With that as well, the mindset of thinking that you have to hit a certain number of 'burnt calories' in a workout to make it worthwhile was really disheartening as well and that a lower number of active calories doesn't mean its a bad workout.'
Right, this is the most important part of the blog.
You maybe already knew some of these, or there's something that you just needed reminding about. The whole aim of my blog and the reason I started it up was to help people understand more about training. If this blog just sits here collecting dust then it becomes pretty pointless me doing this. So big favour, actually tell people about it. Send it to your friends on Instagram, share it via messages, links, carrier pigeon. You may not even know anyone but just sharing it could help just one person and then it all becomes worth it.
There maybe someone who's looking to get back into training after lockdown, someone who feels like their running against a brick wall. It even applies to people who have been training for a long time but just need a little boost or some correction. No ones perfect or has life figured out from the get go, it’s all a big learning curve. Some of these points I've only just recently realised, you never stop learning.
I had so many responses so I apologise if I missed yours out, but hopefully everyone’s learned something from today's post.
Not a lot of work from me today, kinda got everyone else to write it for me. Thanks for everyone who helped out. Go follow me on Instagram (@cmcg.fitness) and share the post to hopefully help as many people as possible with their fitness journey. Subscribe to the blog so you get notified if you enjoyed it.
Thanks
Cameron
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmcg.fitness/
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