Where do I start? What should I do?

• Are these the questions you are asking yourself?
• Are you confused as to what to do in your weekly workout routines?
• Are you overwhelmed with the choices? 

There are many variables to these questions but here are a few tips that will help you to get started. 

Get Moving

First and foremost you need to move your body! A gentle fascia workout class is a great way to start. A Hatha Yoga class is another option to begin with. Daily walks on your own or with friends and family is always a great choice. Just get moving!

Strength and/or Resistance Training Classes

When you gain new muscle, your body then needs to maintain that muscle, therefore, increasing your metabolism, which allows your body to burn calories more efficiently, this then leads to a greater ability to burn fat and achieve and sustain your fitness & health goals.

After you lift weights or do any sort of resistance training, your muscles break down. The intelligence of your body then repairs/replaces these damaged muscle fibers through a cellular process of fusing muscle fibers together to form new muscle protein strands that create muscular growth. Basically working out your muscles a few times a week to the point of fatigue will create a stronger muscle that will burn off more calories in your resting states. 

Cardio Classes

Which one? HIIT or Aerobic? New to exercise? Ease into cardio workouts by starting with aerobic training.

HIIT stands for High-Intensity Interval Training. Which means you want to push your workout to a higher level of intensity. HIIT works with our anaerobic system – a system that requires less oxygen so we typically don’t push to this level for long periods of time.  

An aerobic workout like my Cardio Hi Lo class is when more oxygen is utilized by the body, and so we can sustain this aerobic zone for a much longer period of time. The heart is a muscle though and when we push ourselves to that place of higher intensity, the heart fatigues, and like any other muscle we work to fatigue, when it breaks down, our intelligent body then repairs it – not just repairs it – but repairs it STRONGER. True heart health is acquired when we allow this fatigue/repair sequence to happen in our workouts. 

Calorie’s Burned

The amount of calories burned with each workout varies by your body weight, length, and intensity of your workout & how much muscle you have built up in your body. When you work out at a higher intensity level (HIIT) your body will burn off more calories for a longer period of time after your workout. After an aerobic workout, your body gradually returns to its normal level of calorie usage. However, after a high-intensity workout, your body will continue to burn off calories for a few hours.

FYI When you add that strength training class to your workout schedule and have built up more muscle – your body will burn more calories continually around the clock! This is why a balance of cardio, strength, and yoga in your weekly workout schedule is crucial and beneficial. 

New To Fitness Training?

If you are new to exercise please ease yourself into your cardio workouts. You will not be able to exercise at an intensity level that will promote this prolonged calorie burn until you have trained your cardiovascular system to work at the higher intensity level. Regular, continual & motivational exercise will allow you to eventually reach these levels. Safety and enjoyment are always your best choices. 

A Yoga Practice

Ahhhh yoga. Although all of the above classes contribute to lowering your stress level, there is nothing like the mindfulness of a Yoga class activating your Para-sympathetic system to achieve the optimal stress releasing activity. Focus, breath work, mindful movement, awareness, lengthening, aligning, isolating, and releasing are all a part of any yoga class – essentially creating that balance and restoration that everybody needs.

Unsure about the many styles of yoga? Try them all to find your favorites and then enjoy! ☺