What should you do for exercise? If you are brand new to working out, the most important thing for you to do is just to move. Even if you go to the gym and ALL you know is how to turn on the treadmill, that is 100 times better than not doing anything. Of course, if you have a gym membership, there’s many more machines at your disposal and it would benefit you to learn to use them. All machines have a picture on them that show you how to use them and they show you what muscles it works. If you are going to try to use them on your own without any help, make sure you are not loading it with very heavy weight. Over time you will be able to add more and more. There are also free weights that can be added to your workouts and come in different shapes, weights, and sizes.

How much should I be sleeping?

The recommendation to sleep at least 8 hours is on point. Depending on the workouts, some athletes even sleep 9-10 hours so their bodies can recover a lot better. The perfect amount for me is actually about 10 hours. If you are sleeping only 5, you aren’t letting your body recover and rebuild itself stronger. The MOST important part of working out hard, is the recovery phase. THAT is when you see the biggest changes. So if you’re serious about seeing results, Sleep.

What does it mean to eat the right food? What can you do to make sure you are eating the right food?

Depends what the goal is. If the goal is to lose weight and keep necessary muscle from wasting away, then you want to eat enough protein to keep the muscle from wasting away. How much is that going to be? Depends on the person. But I can assure you it will be more than what you think is enough.

You also have to cut out certain foods that you may not realize are bad but are sometimes labeled as “healthy”. And also learn to read nutrition labels so you can make good choices for the rest of your life. This should be a lifestyle change, not just a 3 month or 6 month challenge you put yourself through. Also look into what nutrients your body needs other than just protein, carbs, and fats. There’s more to eating right than just knowing these 3 macronutrients. Micronutrients are important too.

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If you are reading this it means you are ready to make a change. Congratulations on that first step!

The second step is deciding what route you will take to achieve your goal.

Should I buy supplements? Depends. Are you starting to see a pattern with the answers? It always depends on the person, every single person is different. Supplements are made to ADD to what you’re doing already. They are not bad, but I would recommend making sure of the simple things first BEFORE you start looking into a supplement. If you’re tired and have no energy, maybe you should go to sleep, and come back later to workout. Maybe look into changing your workout to a time when you have more energy each day. If you want to start taking protein, are you doing everything to add enough protein to your meals and do you vary it from meat sources and plant sources, that way you also get a lot of the micronutrients you might not otherwise get from a supplement?

I take certain supplements to take in enough protein because sometimes it is hard to consume enough throughout the day. I take a plant based protein supplement. I also take certain vitamins and minerals that I have seen that I need because of tests that I’ve done. Not all supplements are for everyone.

Let me give you a bit of info to start. It takes about 12 weeks to get any kind of change that you can measure. Will you see results sooner? Most likely. But after 12 weeks you will have a good idea of what helps YOU personally.

You can go online and find HUNDREDS of workouts. They are all good starting points. That’s how I started. Anything that will help you get moving and on the road to your goals is a good thing. The important thing is that you actually begin.

The most common goals are:

1. Have more energy

2. Lose weight/fat

3. Feel good about myself

4. Stress relief

Most of us when we first start going to the gym don’t really know what to do to achieve our goals or what to expect really.

I’ve been there.

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What are the most important things you need to focus on? The more focus you put on each of these things, the more results you’ll see.

Focus on:

1. Eating the right food

2. Sleeping more

3. Moving more

That’s really what getting in shape is all about. Learn what each of those things mean in relation to YOUR goal. Each goal is different. Each path is different for everyone.

How long will it take to see results? It all depends on how much you’re willing to put into it. If you workout 5 times a week, you will get 5 times a week results. If you workout 1 time per week, you will get 1 time per week results. In 6 months this would be a huge difference. If you worked out 1 time per week it would mean you worked out 26 hours. If you worked out 5 times per week it would mean you worked out 130 hours. Very big difference there. So remember, consistency is what will get you the results. Time will pass, use it wisely.

What kind of things can you do for your workout? You can do a cardio day, you can do upper body, lower body days, you can divide the gym up into parts and focus on one part of the gym and use those machines for a day, and other machines another day, you can do MANY different things in the gym. and you can follow dedicated programs for a specific goal. Just make sure that no matter what you do, you know how to do it correctly and you don’t risk injury.