Safety tips for beginners who want to exercise at home

Advice for working out safely at home.

Hire a professional trainer

If you are planning to train at home with your own equipment, then I strongly recommend that you hire a professional trainer for a couple of sessions just to get you started. This will not only avoid any injury as you are shown how to perform the exercises with correct form, but if you do the exercises with good, strong technique then you are more likely to get the best effective results and know exactly what to do in order to achieve your fitness goals.

Build up the intensity of exercise over a period of time

If you're fairly unfit, then build up the intensity and frequency of exercise over a period of time. Do not go mad in the first few weeks, try and pace yourself and you will be surprised at how quick you can go from a beginners level into intermediate. Think about your safety when first starting out and make sure that you enjoy what activity in which you are participating in. Consult your GP if you are over 50, very overweight for your size and have never exercised before. I also advise that if you have a family illness or have had one yourself that would affect you if you were to exercise, then it may be wise to have a medical clearance before exercising.

The importance of stretching

I recommend to stretch just after a warm-up (static) and and at the end of the work-out (dynamic). You will achieve best results if you hold the stretches for a lot longer at the end of your work-out as warmer muscles are much more receptive to stretching then. This will also help to promote your flexibility and delay DOMS (delayed on-set muscle soreness). Also if you need to stretch any other time during your work-out thats fine too as your body will tell you. Listen to your body.

Start slowly

Any equipment that you are using, I advise that you start slowly and build up your duration or repetitions. If you are doing a cardio exercise, then build up the length of how long you keep going for each time. You should be able to speak in short sentences to know whether you are exercising to an effective enough level. If you can waffle on, then you need to notch up the intensity, however if you cannot speak at all, then bring it down a level. If you are doing strength bearing exercises, then build up your sets and reps. To know that you are performing in order to get results you should be doing resistant work almost to the point of failure (until you physically cannot do any more reps).

Tips for stomach exercises

Ab and core exercises are good enough using your own bodies resistant or and using a swissball. When doing your sit-ups, the most important advice that I can give you is to always keep your stomach muscles engaged. Make sure that you do not arch your back. Keep the spine neutral at all times so the back is always fully supported.

Breathe!

One of the most important things that I would like to point out with exercise is to BREATHE. It is so highly recommended! Always exhale on the effort (the powerful part). Most people forget to breathe when they are exercising as they are either concentrating on getting the exercise right or they are trying to get it over and done with.

If your motor-coordination is not great at first and you simply cannot remember when to exhale/inhale, then just breathe naturally. It's so important for your body to be fully oxygenated during activity. Remember 80 percent of your energy derives from simply breathing. If you enjoy what you're doing, then you don't have to think about getting it over and done with. Choose something that you enjoy. If you are not a very motivated person when it comes to exercise then do a team sport or train with a partner so you both have something to look forward to or you can both hype each other up.

Have fun with it and be safe!