With everyone spending a lot more time cooped up at home, the mere thought of fitness for beginners can seem daunting. Especially if you’ve never exercised properly before! 

In these challenging times, it’s super tempting to just spend the day in your pjs eating pizza. But when it comes to long-term wellbeing and health, getting up off the sofa and being active will help you feel more positive and confident than ever before. 

So, if you’re a total newcomer to the world of fitness and exercise, don’t worry! There’s never been a more important time to stay active, even when stuck at home all day. To discover how to kickstart your fitness journey with a bang, here’s our ultimate guide to beginner fitness. 

Fitness for Beginners: Back to Basics

If you’re truly serious about starting and maintaining a proper workout regime, learning basic fitness lingo is crucial. If you don’t know your reps from your sets and haven’t the faintest idea what cardio involves, here’s some simple exercise terms to get you going!

Repetitions (reps) – A rep is the completion of a single exercise movement e.g. lying on the floor and raising your upper body to your knees, completing one sit-up exercise. 

Sets – A specific amount of reps grouped together e.g. completing 10 consecutive sit-ups forms a set. 

Circuit – A group of different sets completed one after the other e.g. 10 sit-ups, 10 squats, 10 jumping jacks & 10 push-ups will form a circuit. 

HIIT (high intensity interval training) – Intense bursts of exercise sets, with short rest periods in between. Designed to get your heart pumping, HIIT is super effective at burning fat and calories – even after your workout is over. 

DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) – Feelings of soreness the day after an intense workout. Hard workouts cause tiny tears to appear in your muscles (not a bad thing!), and DOMS occurs as your muscles repair and grow stronger. 

Rest day – Pretty self explanatory. A rest day is a day you don’t workout, giving your body the chance to recover. Rest days are super important, as exercising too much can cause damage.

Types of Exercise

Cardiovascular exercise (cardio) – Cardio involves any physical exercise that raises your breathing and heart rate. Over time, cardio helps improve the function & health of your lungs and heart. Running either outdoors or on a treadmill is a great example!

Aerobic exercise – Any cardio exercise done at a steady pace. Aerobic exercise increases your breathing and heart rate to a point it can be sustained. Steady jogging, elliptical training and even brisk walking are all great aerobic exercises. 

Anaerobic exercise – Any high-intensity exercise causing you to run out of breath quickly, to a point you need a short rest. Super effective for burning fat, lifting heavy weights and bursts of sprinting fall under the anaerobic category. HIIT (high intensity interval training) is a great routine of anaerobic exercise.

Strength (resistance) exercise – Any exercise moving your muscles against some form of resistance. Lifting weights or using resistance bands are great examples, with building muscle often being the goal. 

Flexibility exercise – Any range of movements that stretch muscle groups, to increase flexibility and overall strength. Pilates and yoga fall under the category of flexibility exercise. 

Isolation exercises – An exercise movement using only one muscle group and joint e.g. bicep curls with weights.  

Compound exercises – An exercise movement using multiple muscle groups and joints e.g. squats. 

Now, that might seem like a lot to take in. But once you get into the swing of your new fitness routine, you’ll remember these terms like you’ve known them forever! 

However, simply knowing a bunch of fitness lingo isn’t enough to become a workout pro. You now need to decide which type of workout is best for your exact goals, as exercise definitely doesn’t take a ‘one size fits all’ approach. 

Everyone has different results they want to achieve, and it’s essential your chosen fitness routine takes that into account. If you’re looking to build muscle, constant cardio isn’t going to do the trick. And if you want to lose weight, sticking to heavy lifting won’t be the most effective strategy. 

Identifying your exact fitness goals is key to success. Ask yourself “why do I want to start exercising?”, “what do I want to gain from this?”. And once you’ve got your answer, you can develop the most effective workout routine for you – even when stuck at home. 

Choosing Your Perfect Fitness for Beginners Workout

Here’s a simple list of common workout goals, and the most compatible workout choices for each! 

Fat Loss

Arguably one of the most popular reasons people ditch the sofa for exercise, losing weight is a key goal for many. And even though our gyms are currently closed, dropping the pounds at home definitely isn’t as difficult as you might think. 

The trick here is not to go overboard. If you’ve never exercised properly before, the worst thing you can do is throw yourself into the most powerful HIIT workout you find. You’ll not only fail and lose motivation, but could cause serious damage to your body. 

Slow and steady wins the race, and you’re guaranteed to feel the benefits pretty quickly. Cardio will become your new best friend when looking to drop fat as a newcomer to fitness – the Couch to 5k challenge being a brilliant starting point!

This program slowly introduces you to running over a 9 week period. Giving you specific running plans to follow each week, you can slowly work-up to a full 5k without stopping. Easy to complete on a treadmill at home as well as outdoors, running certainly doesn’t have to be reserved for the gym. 

But if running isn’t your thing, don’t worry. There’s plenty more brilliant cardio options you can try! Rowing is excellent for a full-body workout, as multiple muscle groups are engaged at once. And if you’re looking for a low-impact alternative to jogging, elliptical training burns just as many calories without harming your joints. 

Once your body becomes used to cardio, you can begin more challenging exercise routines too. HIIT is excellent for powerful calorie burning, and sure to take your weight loss to brand-new levels of success. And with so many HIIT tutorials and inspiration online, you won’t struggle to find different workouts to try at home! 

To further enhance HIIT or circuits, you can even incorporate a vibration plate. Featuring cutting-edge technology designed to aid weight loss, you can make your home workouts a whole lot more effective. 

Building Muscle

If you want to make those gains and start building more shape, working out for muscle growth is key. A combination of eating more regularly, boosting protein and lifting weights is a great beginner approach. 

In simple terms, muscle growth follows a ‘tear and repair’ principle. As we mentioned earlier, working out hard and lifting weights causes tiny muscle tears resulting in DOMS. The action of these tears repairing causes muscles to gain size, meaning recovery periods are very important. 

Obviously if you’ve never even lifted a weight before, starting light is crucial! If you instantly begin lifting super heavy weights without prior experience, you could cause severe damage – and be in a lot of pain. 

An ideal beginner routine involves pretty high reps of each exercise (8-12), with 3 sets for each. Weighted squats, pull-ups, and dumbbell chest press exercises are great to start with. And as your muscles begin to grow in size, you’ll probably find you can start increasing the weights you’re using. 

Plenty of beginner bodybuilding guides are available online, meaning you don’t need to rely on expensive personal trainers to build muscle. You shouldn’t completely neglect cardio either! HIIT is a great way to burn excess fat without losing muscle mass. 

Building Strength

Many assume building muscle and building strength are the same, but they have plenty of subtle differences. 

Whilst there are certain similarities, building strength typically requires a slightly different rep and set regime. Unlike muscle growth workouts, strength is best built via low reps and higher weights. 

Challenging yourself is key when looking to enhance strength. You should be aiming to struggle with each rep, otherwise you’re not lifting heavy enough! 

As strength building often requires advanced abilities, it’s not recommended to launch straight into this as a beginner. Whilst you may love the idea of being able to lift the heaviest objects imaginable – it’s not safe without at least some prior experience. 

Opt for general muscle growth first, and slowly transition into building strength if that’s your primary goal. 

General Fitness

If you’re keen to get active but aren’t bothered about the above goals, you probably just want to increase your general fitness, right? And there’s so many options to choose from! 

If you don’t have a specific goal in mind, this instantly provides more freedom. Something as simple as gardening or going out for a daily walk will contribute to your general health, and you can easily get the family involved too. 

Staying active doesn’t have to involve rigorous exercise regimes. Simply taking the stairs instead of the lift, and walking to your local shop instead of driving are all great options. And if you experience sudden motivation to target a specific fitness goal, your body will be ready! 

Fitness for Beginners: Top Tips to Stay on Track

Now you’ve learnt important fitness terms and established your reason for exercising, you’re probably feeling super motivated to get started. But it’s very common for that initial burst of motivation to begin dwindling after a few days. And we don’t want that to happen!

Keeping yourself motivated and on-track is essential to achieve long-term fitness goals. You don’t want all your initial hard work to be for nothing, especially if this is your first time properly getting into exercise at home. 

So, if you’re worried about staying driven, here’s some top tips to keep you on track.

Always Warm Up & Cool Down

This might seem obvious, but failing to properly warm up and cool down could wreak havoc on your entire routine. Your muscles and joints will become seriously sore – a guaranteed motivation killer for any beginner. 

To prepare your body for exercise, warming up is essential. Spend at least 3-5 minutes stretching with some light cardio (simply walking is enough), as this will prep your muscles for what lies ahead. And don’t forget to stretch post-workout too!

Wear Proper Activewear 

When stuck at home all day, working out in your old trackies and t-shirt is probably tempting. Why waste money on workout gear when no one’s going to see me?!

But wearing proper, form-fitting activewear is guaranteed to give you a boost. The simple act of putting on workout gear will provide instant motivation, and you’ll feel a lot less sluggish. 

Listen to Your Body 

It’s crucial to be in-tune with your body when exercising, especially as a beginner. If you begin to feel exhausted or in pain, don’t force yourself to continue. 

It may feel a little frustrating having to stop, but you’ll be saving yourself a lot of potential damage in the long-run. Listen to what your body can and can’t do, and you’ll likely achieve your goals much faster – and safer! 

Set a Workout Routine

Setting time aside specifically for working out is guaranteed to keep you on track. Dedicating time holds you accountable, and creates a brand-new sense of routine essential when staying at home. 

Simply waiting until you ‘feel like working out’ isn’t going to do the trick. Even just dedicating 10 minutes per day is better than nothing, and you’re a lot more likely to do it if you’ve already pencilled it into your day. 

Do What You Enjoy

As you expand your fitness journey, you’ll get a sense of which exercises you prefer over others. And stick with them! 

Don’t force yourself to complete workouts you hate, as this is almost guaranteed to crash your motivation. Especially when working out at home. Fitness for beginners is all about exploring new movements and discovering what you enjoy. So, if you end up preferring elliptical training over running, don’t force yourself to run 5k if you know you’re going to hate it. 

We’re always more motivated to do things we enjoy, and exercising is no exception.

To Summarise

And there you have it – the ultimate guide to fitness for beginners. Being stuck at home during these challenging times is enough to make anyone feel a little miserable. But discovering exercise and experiencing new things is sure to make you feel more positive – especially with all the endorphins you’ll have whizzing around! 

We hope we’ve given you some inspiration to get started, and we hope you’re all doing safe and well. To discover some simple home workout ideas and delicious healthy recipes, check out our Instagram.