Blogs
Tue, 1 Mar 2011
Horizon Fit Tips - March 2011
Training programmes - where to start?
New to exercising? We've put together the following tips and advice to help you get started and achieve the most out of your new fitness product and exercise regime.
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If you are new to exercising regularly, or have any health conditions, then it is vital to check with your GP first, before embarking on a new exercise programme
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Always make sure you are hydrated before you begin exercising. It's often a good idea to have a bottle of water on hand in case you need it during your workout. Remember not to drink too much or too quickly though. Unless you are participating in an endurance activity or are exercising in high temperatures, you shouldn’t need a large amount of fluids.
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Always begin your workout with a gentle warm-up to get your body used to the exercise and slowly increase your heart rate.
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At the end of your workout, always make sure you have a cool down period to allow your heart rate to fall slowly, and to let your body recover.
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If you feel dizzy, uncomfortable, or experience any pains during your workout, slow down your work out immediately and stop. It may be advisable to consult your GP before continuing your programme.
Why not try using a rating scale of perceived exertion to help you monitor your training?
Many people just starting out on an exercise programme have no idea what ‘level’ on the equipment they should be working at. Using a perceived exertion scale, (PE scale), is a good way to start out, as it helps you understand how you are feeling about the exercise, and you will soon learn the level or speed on the equipment that you are able to train at. Hopefully, as you get fitter, the level/speed that you can train at should increase, giving you more motivation and confidence!
Start out by using a very low level/speed on the equipment – you can always increase it as you go along, but it's better to build up slowly.
You can use any of the pre-set programmes on the equipment to keep your workouts varied, but if you just want to do a manual workout to begin with until you gain confidence, or to introduce your own variety into a workout then you can use the PE scale to help you do this too.
|
Rating |
Perceived exertion |
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0 |
Nothing |
|
1 |
Very weak |
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2 |
Weak |
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3 |
Moderate – comfortable |
|
4 |
Moderate to strong – can talk very easily |
|
5 |
Strong – just above comfortable, but can talk in sentences still |
|
6 |
Strong – breathing quite hard & sweating, talking is harder |
|
7 |
Very Strong – can only manage a few words |
|
8 |
Very Strong – only able to manage single word responses |
|
9 |
Very Strong – unable to keep up the pace for long |
|
10 |
Extremely strong (all-out & unable to go harder) |
A warm-up session should be done at an approximate level of 2-3, for 5-10 minutes. After the warm-up, a general steady-paced workout should be done at a PE level of approximately 5-6. For the cool down, you should gradually decrease the intensity of your workout until you get to a PE level of 2-3 again and maintain this for approximately 5-10 minutes.
It's advisable to build up your training programme gradually and include rest days. Start off training no more than two or three times a week to build up your fitness base and get your body used to the new exercise programme. After a few weeks, you can start adding additional and/or longer sessions.
Once you have established a regular training programme and started to build up your fitness, you may want to vary your workout or increase the intensity, so why not try adding interval sessions into your programme? Intervals are shorter periods of increased intensity, speed or incline, followed by easier ‘recovery’ periods. Alternate between hard and easy intervals. For example, you may start off with a 5 minute warm up, and then do a 2 minute ‘hard’ interval at approximately level 8-9 on the PE scale, followed by a 2 minute ‘easy’ interval at approximately level 4-5 on the PE scale. Alternate intervals and start off doing approximately 4 or 5 of each. End with a cool down period of 5-10 minutes at a PE level of 2-3.
As you progress you can start to increase the number of intervals, or vary the length of the intervals. It's not advisable to increase the number of the intervals and length of the ‘hard’ intervals at the same time though. Make sure you build one aspect at a time.