Fitness Foundations! What You NEED To Know

Your dream physique is something to strive for, but hard to attain. Many give up before they even start and it's not surprising. Choosing to follow a time consuming regimen of exercise and diligent food selection is really tough for the average fitness type, heck it's tough for expert fitness types. Now, you may think i'm trying to drive you away from fitness, in actuality i'm giving you cold hard facts that you must know before you start.

You will not become "shredded", "built", "slim", or any other dream physique you  have in mind just like that. It takes time coupled with consistency to achieve your dream physique. This is why you need foundations. Think of it like this, in order for a house to stand it needs its foundation, in order for a business to operate it needs its foundational principles, the same applies to fitness. There are principles that are common among all successful fitness types and you will get to know them.

1. Have a plan: Before hitting the gym make sure you have a plan. We can all make spur of the moment plans, but i'm referring to long term plans specifying what you will do for a month. Doesn't have to be so elaborate - pick a sequence of exercises you will do for a month and do them. It reduces uncertainty, gives you goals to achieve, sets performance standards, gives you long term vision and short term motivation.
2. Ensure proper form: Don't be a robot, but don't put yourself in a position to be badly injured. Take precaution when doing exercises, don't ego lift (lifting more weight than you're capable of to impress others in the gym), and do a bit of research on the exercises you're doing. Watch some youtube videos or even hire a personal trainer ;)
3. Take warm-up and cool-downs seriously: Activation is a huge part of injury prevention. There is a reason you see sport teams have pregame warm-ups. It's not just because they want to look cool in front of the fans (i'm sure that's the goal for some of them 😂), but it's hard to flip that switch in game. Warming up allows you to gradually get into that zone which in fitness will help you prevent injuries.
4. Start slow and progress gradually: For those that want to put on muscle mass and look real jacked this is part one of achieving that. Progressive overload will be your best friend. Here's an example, say you're hitting the bench press and you're able to do 95lbs for 5 sets of 5 reps. Now there are different ways to measure progression, but for simplicity sake i'll just look at weight. Your next session should look something like this, 95lbs for set 1 & 2 at 5 reps, 100lbs for the next two sets, and lastly have a spotter ready and hit 105 until failure. Now there are a lot of things to keep in mind here, but the main focus should be completing reps with good form and going until failure. Progressive overload is stimulating the muscle using resistance that'll damage muscle tissue to initiate muscle cell regeneration to which your muscles will enlarge to match the stress induced on the muscle previously. Simply, the more weight you lift over and over and over again and continuing to increase the weight lifted, you'll be able to increase muscle mass
5. Fuel your body: This is part two in your quest in looking really jacked. Your body needs fuel and without it, you won't be able to put on muscle mass. Protein is at the heart of this process and by not having enough of it you won't be able to supply your muscles with adequate nutrients to enlarge. Protein is an essential component of muscle growth and by not having enough of it you will not reap the rewards of your workouts. To make sure you get enough protein for muscle growth, consume about 0.8g - 1g of protein per lbs of bodyweight. Now let me be clear, this isn't for everyone, the majority of people just want to be healthy and feel good and that's okay. In that case still consume your protein, there isn't really a necessity to track your protein however keep in mind you must identify your maintenance calories. If you need help with that you can search for calorie trackers online or you're welcome to discuss this with a certified personal trainer below.

https://calendly.com/zxf_fitness/zxf-fitness-consultation    

In the coming days part two of this newsletter will be released and that will go over the next five foundational principles you must know during your fitness journey.

Remember, if it were easy everyone would do it.

Be different.