What are the introductory fitness exercises for beginners

Beginners don’t need to choose those fancy internet celebrity movements when getting started with fitness. It’s enough to get a thorough understanding of the basic compound movements without weight/light weight. The core ones are the basic movement modes around squats, push, pull, hip hinge, and core anti-rotation.

I took care of a young brother who just graduated a while ago. He followed the short video to learn rope flyes and dumbbell lateral raises. After practicing for two weeks, his shoulders hurt so much that he couldn't lift them. He also complained that he was not born to be a fitness material. In fact, he didn't build a foundation of movements first, and he struggled with isolation movements. The pressure on his joints was high and he couldn't find a sense of force. It was all a waste of effort.

The first thing you need to learn thoroughly is the bare-handed squat. Don’t think that this movement has little technical content even in elementary school. If you squat in front of the mirror, you will know that many people’s knees buckle inward and the waist collapses forward as soon as they squat. If their knees hurt after squatting for two weeks, they will say "exercise hurts the knees". In fact, the movement is just wrong. At the beginning, you don’t need to add any weight. Just look in the mirror and find the feeling of sitting back on your butt, as if there is an invisible low chair behind you and you have to sit on it gently. Squat until your thighs are parallel to the ground and then stand up. Just do 3 groups of 12 times each time. After two weeks of training, you will not be as breathless as before when you climb five or six floors. It is also particularly useful for hip tension accumulated from sitting for a long time.

After training the lower limbs, novices can just choose wall push or kneeling push-ups for upper limb pushing movements. If the strength of the upper limbs is particularly weak, first push against the wall instead of doing standard push-ups with your waist slumped. Last month I met a girl who wanted to lose fat. She insisted on doing standard push-ups. Her waist hurt and she had to rest for almost three weeks, which delayed her progress. Speaking of this, there is another point that many people argue about: Some people say that novices will get thicker arms by practicing push-ups, and girls will lose breasts by practicing push-ups. In fact, they really worry about it. The amount of training for novices can’t even touch the threshold of effective muscle fiber destruction. At most, the muscles will be congested and swollen for a day or two after the exercise, which is not enough to make the muscles thicker. On the contrary, if you practice them well, you can hold up the chest muscles, and the chest shape will be visually taller.

If you push, you must pull. Otherwise, the strength of the front and rear muscles will be unbalanced. After practicing for a long time, it will be easy to round the shoulders and hunchback. For the pulling action, novices can choose an elastic band to bend over and row. Find an elastic band and put it on the door handle. Step on the other end with both feet. Straighten your back and pull it toward your waist. Feel the feeling of the muscles in the middle of your back being pinched in between. It's normal to not be able to feel the force in your back at the beginning. Many people will only feel soreness in their arms after stretching. After practicing five or six more times, the nerves will adapt and you will naturally find the feeling. There is no need to rush to change movements and add weight. Others are asking whether newbies should practice isolation movements first to find a sense of strength? To be honest, the nerve control ability of most ordinary newcomers is not that strong. Compound movements mobilize many muscle groups, which makes it easier to find the feeling of exerting force. The efficiency is much higher than spending a long time working on isolated movements.

Beginners to hip hinge-related movements can start with the light-weight Romanian deadlift. If you don’t have any equipment, you can still do it by carrying two 500ml bottles of mineral water. The main thing is to look for the feeling of your butt pushing back. Keep your entire back straight and don’t bend your back. Practice this movement The entire posterior and side chain is particularly useful for improving backache caused by sitting for a long time. Don’t be afraid of “hard pulling to hurt the waist”. If you practice with two bottles of mineral water, the movements will not put any extra pressure on the lumbar vertebrae. Injury to the waist will only occur when you perform heavy weight movements and deform the shape.

Don’t start with core training by just doing hundreds of crunches. Just practice the dead bug movement first. Lie flat with your waist close to the ground, stretch your hands and feet far away alternately, and feel the core tighten and stabilize the upper body. This stimulates the core more effectively than crunches, and it will not strain the cervical spine like doing dumb crunches. I used to have a friend who did 100 crunches every day, and his neck hurt after half a month of practice. He also said that his core was too bad. In fact, he just chose the wrong movements and exercised too hard.

Don’t be greedy for too much training at the beginning. Choose 3-4 movements for each training, and do 3 groups of 12-15 times each. Practicing 3 times a week is enough. Doing the movements to a standard is much more useful than charging heavy weights and gathering training volume. Muscle soreness the next day after training is normal delayed-onset soreness. It will disappear after two days of rest, so don’t panic.