A new year has rolled around and I’m sure many of you are feeling the need to change your lifestyle habits and improve your fitness. This may seem like an overwhelming feat, however, I’m here to provide you some tips on changing habits and a simple beginner-friendly training plan to improve your fitness.
First, let’s talk habits and how to sustainably change them.
Habits are made slowly and consistently, so start by thinking of small changes that you can make to improve your day-to-day life. Once you’ve thought of a list of possible changes, it’s important to choose one at a time to adjust. It’s common for to be very ambitious when a new year comes and to decide to make drastic changes to multiple aspects of life, however this is often not sustainable for many people. Instead, choose one habit from your list and improve it by a small amount. An example would be with sleep – if currently you sleep 6 hours per night, a small amount of improvement would be to start going to bed one hour earlier to get 7 hours of sleep and from there, progressively increase the amount of sleep per night each week.
Here are some more examples of habits to improve:
- Adding fruits and vegetables to your meals
- Physical Activity 2-3 times per week
- Improving quality and/or length of sleep
Secondly, if you are a person who is looking to start exercising this new year but have little to no experience in a gym, a simple body weight exercise program may be right for you. Going to the gym can be very intimidating for someone who has never been, and the different equipment can be overwhelming and may make it hard to know where to start.
It’s important when beginning to exercise or starting to exercise again to ease into it with 2-3 times per week to ensure that the body has sufficient time to recover between training sessions. These training sessions should include exercises for the whole body, and should include at least one push, pull, squat, hinge, and carry.
To assist those who are less comfortable in the gym, working a sedentary job, or just looking to get back into working out, I have designed this simple, full-body, bodyweight strength training program. This training program can be done up to 3 times per week for 4-6 weeks. It’s simple and can be done in the gym or at home and with minimal equipment. (Click here to see the training program).
Remember, the new year does not have to mark a time of drastic change in your life. Instead consider using it as a stepping off point to make small, sustainable changes to improve your wellbeing. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or are unsure where to start, consider using the habit changing techniques suggested above. And consider trying my training program as a simple way to ease into or back into training.
By: Sabrina Brellisford
Sabrina Brellisford started as a Fitness and Sports Instructor in August 2021. “I have a passion for strength and conditioning from having been an athlete since I was a child. Prior to working at Borden, I was a varsity Waterpolo and Rugby athlete in university and I gained experience working with high-level varsity athletes, young athletes, and the general population. I’m also a musician in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves, which feeds my passion for playing music. In my spare time I enjoy hiking, training, playing with my two cats, and baking.”
This article is part of the Borden Citizen “Weekly Fitness Tips” series. Click here for more content like this, and subscribe to the free Borden Citizen weekly newsletter to make sure you don’t miss the next one!
