Fitness 101: The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Exercise

For a beginner, the most confusing question is, "where to start?"

10:53 18 May 2020

Most people know have idea that cardio is the best thing to start exercise even if it’s your first day at gym. But again the questions like mentioned below need to be answered before you start:

• How much time do you need to give to cardio?
  
  
• What should be the intensity level? Or;
  
  
• Which machine would be best for a beginner?
  
  

Before I get the answer to these questions, being beginner, I would ask myself, how many calories do I burn a day and how many calories should I burn a day. These fundamental questions will determine how much time should I spend on workout. Now, as you are a beginner, you should ask yourself how many calories should you burn a day. The easiest way to know the answer to this basic question is to calculate TDEE.

What’s TDEE and How to Calculate TDEE?

TDEE seems confusing term when you read it first, but it’s merely Total Daily Energy Expenditure. In other words, it’s simplified form of the question “how many calories do I burn a day?”

It may not be easy for you to calculate TDEE using manual calculations on paper. The easiest way to calculate TDEE is to use some online TDEE calculator. The best TDEE calculator that I found online is available at Calculator-Online.net.

FITT – The Basic Principle for Beginners

Now, as you know about TDEE, let’s introduce you another term called FITT. FITT is the basic principle to plan your workout. But before coming to FITT, it was necessary to calculate TDEE because FITT is based on TDEE value. And as you would have calculated TDEE from the online TDEE calculator, we can further go in-depth of FITT.

FITT is again, the basics questions we asked at the start of this post. Below we will explain the elements of FITT, and then you will, not only, get the answers to those question, but you will also be able to plan your workout as a beginner.

· Frequency:

The first letter of FITT refers to Frequency. Based on TDEE value, your mission and routine, you need to set the frequency of exercise, i.e. how often you need to go gym for exercise and how often you should repeat the specific exercise.

For example, if your mission is fitness, frequency of cardio will be higher than other exercises. And if the purpose is to gain muscles, intense weight lifting exercises will have more frequency.

· Intensity:

The intensity of the exercise is determined on two factors:

• Your Goal
  
  
• Your Deadline
  
  

If your goal is to gain muscles, you will have to perfume intense workouts and if your goal is to stay fit, the intensity will be average.

Intensity is inversely proportional to time given to yourself, i.e. the goal deadline that you set for yourself. Shorter the deadline, more intense the exercise will be.

· Time:

The first T in FITT is time, i.e. how much time you need to give to particular exercise, and it will solely depend upon the goal you set for yourself.

· Type:

Again, the type of exercise mainly depends upon the mission you have in your mind. If the purpose is to burn calories, you should go for cardio exercises. And if the mission is to burn belly fat, you will have to choose exercises which involve abdomen muscles.

Now, as a beginner, you got the basic idea how to start. I hope this guide will help you a lot in planning your workout and gym routine.