3 Things I Wish I Knew Before I First Started Training

Have you ever wished that you could go back in time and do certain things differently? I sometimes feel this way when it comes to how I started my fitness journey. I feel like I wasted a couple of years of making gains by not knowing certain things I learned along the way. Looking back now if I only knew a few things before I started training I would've got results way faster, everything seems easier when you look back at things hindsight. In today's blog I'm going to go over the top 3 things I wish I knew before I first started training. If you are new to training these tips will definitely shorten your path of reaching your fitness goal.

1. Recovery - Many people have the misconception that if you want to get results you have to train every single day even if you are hurt or sick and unfortunately I used to be one of these people. I would train 8 days a week if it was possible when I first started that's how bad I wanted to reach my fitness goal. I would train if I was sick, if there was a blizzard outside it didn't matter rain or shine I'll want to be at the gym training. I remember one time I thought if I trained my whole body every single day I would get bigger and stronger faster, after about 4 days in I learned right away that the human body didn't work that way. I woke up on the 5 day with my whole body aching and with a crazy high fever. I quickly realized that YES I needed to workout hard and put in the effort but my body also needs time to recover. When we train we aren't really growing we are actually breaking down the body, with the proper rest and nutrition your body will repair itself and get bigger and stronger. If I only knew this when I first started I would've definitely got way faster results.

2. Most Of Your Results Will Come From What You Eat - Something I really wish I knew before I started training is that your diet is the most important thing. Yeah you need to do exercise but without eating the right foods you will see little to no results. I remember training for about 2 years and not seeing much results until I figured out what I needed to eat for the fitness goal that I had. You can eat healthy but that doesn't mean you will attain your goal. Not only do you need to know what foods to eat but you also need to know the right quantity of food for your goal as well.

3. Free Weights Vs Machines - I originally started training at home with some free weights that were laying around, but I didn't really get serious about training until I signed up to the gym for the first time. As a newbie I was amazed by all the machines they had and I figured that machines is what I needed to reach my fitness goal. After about 1 year of just doing machines I saw some results but not as much as I thought it would be. One day I switched over to doing more free weight exercises with dumbbells and barbells and after just 1 month a saw a huge difference. Free weights will help you burn more calories, get stronger and build more muscle because it produces greater stress on your body. It takes more effort for your body to balance out the free weights than to be on a stationary machine pushing or pulling weight that is balanced out for you already.

If you are new to training these are definitely 3 things you need to know beforehand and you can get to your goal a lot quicker. I wish I had someone tell me this before I started. If you need more help to reach your fitness goal please feel free to do one of our customized programs. Doing something customized for your specific fitness goal and body is the only way to achieve your goals the fastest way possible.