BEGINNERS WEIGHT LOSS GUIDE

Training

As a complete beginner one of the best things you can do is hire a decent trainer or at the least purchase and follow a programme. This will save you a lot of time, teach proper technique and give you structure.

Below is a guideline of what I would suggest for a beginner:

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• Set realistic goals! If you work a 9 – 5 job, have kids and a social life then planning to train every day will have you burnt out very quickly. As a beginner 2 to 3 days will be plenty. Use a full body workout routine (download below with full training log). Have a read of my training splits blog to see why full body workouts give you the most bang for your buck.

• Keep a training log or at the least have your workouts written down. Each workout should have the exercise, amount of sets, reps, rest time and tempo on there.

• Ensure you are progressing in your workouts. This can be done through a number of ways. Increasing the amount of reps with a given weight is the most common. You can also increase the variation of an exercise to make it more difficult.

• As a beginner you will see great results at the start. You are in a much better position than most trainees, you have the ability to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time (gets harder over time).

• Exercise selection is also important at the beginning. Go for compound exercises (works multiple muscles) such as Squats, Bench Press, Deadlifts, Chin Ups etc.

• Hire a trainer or research as much as you can on how to perform these lifts safely and optimally. Deadlifts can be quite technical and squats can be tricky if you have certain mobility issues.

• Increase N.E.A.T (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) fancy way of saying any movement outside the gym (insert cool glasses winky emoji). If you work most of the day (sitting down) then workout for an hour, go home, watch TV and sleep how many calories are you burning? Increase the amount you do outside of the gym and see greater results.

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• What about cardio? Use it as a supplement to your workouts. Had a day where you've gone over on calories then try a sprint interval session (short, sharp, quicker and more fun than traditional cardio). I have personally planned in sprint sessions on days where I knew I would be eating more food. why not plan it in. 

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• Use rest days to stretch, muscles will become fixed in a certain position with weight lifting . Look into self myofascial release as well as stretching. 

• Finally this will also take time! Don’t expect awesome results after a few days. The idea is to make this a lifestyle, enjoy being active and having great energy that comes with training, eating well and having “that body”.

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If you'd like the guesswork taken out, click here to go to the online coaching page.

Check out the sample workouts on my blog and Instagram.