Basic New Year's Workout Routine

Trying to get in shape this New Year? It's a common time for people to begin getting their body's back in shape. Whether you are trying to lose weight (as most are) or just get in general better shape, this routine will give you some tools to get started.

First of all, make sure that you are cleared by your doctor or health care provider to start working out. This routine takes that into consideration. I cannot be held responsible for any pre-existing conditions that you may have. Take it slowly and be cautious. An injury can set you back or curtail you getting in shape both now and in the future.

Also, for the sake of brevity and clarity, I am being more blunt than I normally am when instructing a new client. Understand that no insult is intended. I am merely trying to get everything out on paper in the most succinct way possible.

I will list out the basics, but here are some general rules that I have noted over the years that need to be mentioned first.

1. Start off where you are, not where you want to be. If you are trying to do what you did "back in the day" you will for sure get yourself injured. It is just a matter of time.

Take a lesson from the infamous Milo of Crete. He started off as a young lad and began carrying a calf everyday. As the calf grew, so did his strength.

Take one day at a time and love working out. Fitness is fun if you allow it to be. Lose weight, get in shape, relieve stress, improve your sex life, improve your self esteem...all of these are benefits of a good regular fitness routine.

2. When trying to lose weight: the easiest thing to do with diet is to simply not eat more. As you begin to add a great deal of new activity to your daily life, your body, which has been stable and alive up to this point, thinks you must be dying. So, it makes you hungrier so that you "don't die". You, of course, know you aren't going to die, but that you are just going to get in shape. Your body will figure this out over time as well.

So, just don't eat to fuel the new expenditure/exercise. If you do this, you will be burning of more calories than you are taking in, which will allow you to lose weight slowly and safely.

At the very most, diet wise, do not decrease your calories by much. Too severe of a change and your body will really be afraid you are dying and it will go into "starvation mode," slowing your metabolism down significantly.

These leads me to the next point.

3. If you are burning off more calories than you are taking in, you can't NOT lose weight. You must lose weight if you are burning off more than you are taking in. Basic laws of thermodynamics state this.

So, the opposite is true. Sure, when you start a new routine you will be adding some muscle. But if three or so weeks have gone by and (assuming you are trying to lose weight) you are not seeing a gradual down trend, YOU ARE EATING TO MUCH, or not burning off more than you are taking it.

There is no mystery to this, no, I must be too old to lose weight, or my metabolism is just too slow, or I'm just too big boned, or any other mystery. If you are burning off more than you are taking in YOU MUST LOSE WEIGHT.

4. Write down everything. When you were studying and learning in school you did best if you wrote it all down. Do this now. Write a diet log, type it all on your computer, graph it, go nuts. But you should write it down.

Why? Well, a few months down the road, if you've been writing it all down, you can see what is going wrong. If you haven't, then it will be hard to remember and be certain that your mind isn't playing tricks on you.

There have been numerous studies that have shown that there is a definite difference between what the mind allows you to perceive that you are eating and what you have actually eaten. For example, many will workout one day and go, "Oh, I've been good. I can eat this." The problem is you invariably will do this more than you are aware of, and then suddenly you are eating more than you are burning off. Write it down!

5. It's ok if you do bad on one day/one week. Trainers have known this since the dawn of time. It is ok to do bad, and you will "fail." But the only true way that you fail is if you give up after you have "been bad." Don't sweat it! Just see what you have done wrong then get back out there and try harder.

6. Proceed from point A to point B and so on. Don't do like most Americans and start at point A, think you know everything, then proceed to point D. Take it one thing at a time and focus on the basics.

7. Make sure you are getting enough rest and recovery. If you don't eat to fuel your body and you don't get enough sleep, you'll overtrain. Overtraining should be avoided like the plague. It can end your efforts quick. Make sure you recover.

8. Stubbornness and persistence always work. If you decide you are going to do it, and you make yourself go after it, it will work. Persevere!

Now that I have covered some of the general items that always crop up, here are the basics of a good healthy starting routine. It will get you started, but it is up to you to research and continue on the journey.

Every routine revolves around three items: diet, cardio and weight training. No matter your age, gender, health condition, what have you. I've trained seniors (the oldest was 92), youth, bad metabolism, great metabolisms, etc. These three things always apply and work if adjusted accordingly.

Do all three items, regardless of your gender. Males have a tendency to just want to lift weights. Females have a tendency to just want to do cardio. [Please understand I am speaking in generalities. Over the years, this is the trend that I have seen. Obviously there are almost daily exceptions to this, especially once I convince them of my views.] But if you are doing diet, cardio and weight training, minor adjustments in each of them can produce major changes. If you are only doing one or two of these items, you will have a much harder time.

Diet: as stated above, you should at first only strive to not eat more. Other than that, know that you can eat more if you eat cleaner. I find that most clients know what eating healthy is. Just eat healthier and keep your intake down. The rest is, forgive the pun, gravy.

Beyond that, a good general rule is to keep your macronutrient intake to 50% carbs, 30% protein, and 20% fat. Again, this is extremely general and adjustments can be made.

Buy a book of food counts and keep track of what you eat. Learn things. Write it down. Start with these basics and grow and learn.

Cardio: this refers to cardiovascular exercise. But it should be noted that ANY increase in activity counts. Park farther away and walk, take the stairs instead of the elevator, stuff like that is a must. Don't circle the parking lot at the gym to find a closer space so you don't have to walk as far, then go inside to walk on the treadmill!

But the basics of cardio are this: do something that causes you to huff and puff (not gasp and wheeze) 4-6 times per week. Work up to doing 20-30 minutes minimum, then increase intensity before increasing time.

Your body, especially for weight loss, doesn't care what you are doing for cardio. It just wants you to use calories, which means increasing your heart rate/output. So pick something that doesn't aggravate contraindications. In other words, pick something that doesn't hurt your bad knees, like the elliptical. Use a recumbent bike if it helps relieve back issues. Whatever, just keep doing cardio.

Weight training: this is where things can get much more complex. Feel free to hire a trainer and learn some things with a few sessions, then take that knowledge and do it on your own.

But the basics of weight training, especially if you are new to the game and trying to lose weight, is to do a full body routine, 2-3 times per week, with as few of exercises as possible to get the job done.

There is not enough space to explain why you should do weight training. Please check some of my other articles for this knowledge. Suffice it say, it can be more beneficial than cardio or diet, and is awesome when used in conjunction with these other two items.

So, pick exercises that are called multi-joint exercises. These exercises involve as many body parts as possible per exercise.

Exercises like this are squats, leg press, bench press, lat pull downs/pull ups, shoulder press, upright rows.

Non-multijoint exercises should be considered supplemental and are exercises like biceps curls, shrugs, leg extensions, flyes, and wrist curls.

There are literally countless exercises to do, but these are some of the basics.

A good rule of thumb is to do 1-3 sets of 10-15 repetitions to exhaustion.

The purpose of doing weight training is to do an activity that produces a shock to the body. The body doesn't like the shock so it improves above and beyond where it was to prevent that shock in the future. You have to produce that shock while lifting weights.

Sets and reps are described as follows: reps are within sets. If I were doing one set of ten bench presses, I would bench press ten times to complete one set.

The most "hardcore" way to do this routine is to warm up as needed (do a couple of lighter weight reps to get ready for lifting), then do your first real set to failure, always keeping good form. Your set is over if you cannot keep good form.

As a rule, good form means keeping your abdominals tight at all times and going slowly. There are never any exceptions to this. If you go too fast and relax your ab's, you will get injured eventually. Other than that, check with an instructor to learn correct form on a given exercise. Don't be afraid to ask! It's their job. If not, go higher up in the chain at whatever gym you are at until you get someone to show you.

Once you have done your first set to failure, evaluate how many reps you have done. If it is within the rep range mentioned above (10-15) then you picked the correct weight. If not, adjust the weight. Once you have the correct weight, determine if you can do another set. If you can, then repeat, up to 3 sets IF NECESSARY. One set to failure may accomplish the goal.

If you are trying to do slightly less than "hardcore," then adjust down as needed. This is just fine and may be a good idea when you are just getting started. Just know that you will improve at the rate that you are giving yourself.

If at some point you are not producing a catalyst to improve by doing the weight training, then you are doing something wrong, namely not doing enough weight and not pushing yourself hard enough. Go for it!

Always have good form, go slowly, and get guidance and you'll do fine. Pick multijoint exercises to cover the whole body.

This was the quick and dirty way to get in shape for the new year. Good luck and enjoy the new adventure!