You’re Here, What an Achievement Already!

If you are reading this article that means you’ve already done a third of the job! You made a choice regarding the possibility of going through a body transformation and that’s over half the job done, believe me.

Making this first step is such a HUGE achievement! So many people just think about making a change in their lives but never actually follow through. Or even just get started.

Why? Changes are a scary thing. No matter how great it might sound in your head, getting a new body means facing a lot of challenges.

With this article in my ‘Body Transformation for Beginners’ series, I am going to help you understand what changes you need to make at the very beginning and how to get started.

All you need to think about is today. What you’re doing today regarding your first step. Really, that’s all.

Your First Week

Let me show you what you’ll be doing on your first week of exercising. Don’t panic - it’s all VERY EASY and not overwhelming AT ALL.

Take a look below and please do leave in the comments area if there’s anything you feel uneasy about!

Your List of ‘Do’s’:

• Planing. If you never exercised before you need to think which exercises you feel comfortable doing. Let’s say this is a ‘personalised’ experience! 
• Food Diary. Writing your food diary to understand where you are at regarding food intake and nutrition needs to start from your day 1. Believe me, looking at your diary will be easier in order to analyse (and rethink) possible changes that are easy to make. Here’s a helpful guide for your diary: breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, drinks, eating times.
• Track Your Movements. You’ll need to start tracking your current movements throughout the day. For example: how far is your bus stop from home to work? How much you move during the weekend (dog walking, going to the park for a walk or do you just don’t move at all… etc)

List of 'Dont’s':

• Don't go crazy with exercises. Please. Take it easy - you need to find YOUR pace. We don’t want you to get injured or burnt out!
• DON’T GO ON A DIET. I repeat: don't go on a diet or for that matter change your diet dramatically. This will not last. You need to change your habits slowly if you want them to last. Make observations and small changes. This is very important!

Read the list above a few times before moving on. Get your diary, start tracking your movements and check which exercises below are the ones you feel comfortable with. Ok?

Let’s continue.

1st: WARM UP!

(**videos coming soon)

Home Warm UP Exercises

Below is the list of exercises I think are best for beginners who prefer to stay at home. Each exercise comes with an accompanying video so you can check how it is done properly.

This warm up should last  up to 5 min. 

First week is best to with very simple body weight exercises and possibly some light weights and resistance bands  (if you have)

Mobility drills like :

Rotating your arms back and forth, 

Walking / jogging on the spot, 

Bending forward reaching your toes, 

Rotating your upper body, 

Bending to the side, 

Go on your toes to heels

Gym Warm UP Exercises

Choose any cardio machine for 5-7 min moderate speed, resistance warm up.

Always start your workout with warm up. 

Mobility drills like :

Rotating your arms back and forth, 

Walking / jogging on the spot, 

Bending forward reaching your toes, 

Rotating your upper body, 

Bending to the side, 

Go on your toes to heels

2nd: Instructions & Exercises for Your 1st Week

The most important part is to find the best exercises for you. In the beginning your range of movement might not be as good as you want. Therefore I would advise to do your exercises in front of the mirror so you can check your posture and range of movement. Check out the video of each exercise and try to copy it. If you see that it looks completely different than I'm demonstrating the good idea would be to skip this exercise for now and check for tips on how to improve your range of motion for that particular exercise.

Instructions

Let’s have a look at reps sets and frequency. I’m also recommending you how to get your first, second and third sessions started.

Remember: this is just a guidance! See what you feel comfortable with.

How many reps sets and frequency? 

Being a complete beginner you have to listen to your body. Take appropriate rest and control intensity. 

My recommendation would be : 

1st Session: 

Try all exercises 1 set of each exercise 10-15 repetitions. Do second round if you feel like you can. 

2nd Session: 

Choose 6 exercises 3 upper body 3 lower body perform 3 sets if 10-15 reps each 

3rd Session: 

Repeat all exercises 3 sets of 10-15 repetitions 

However This is just a guidance, please be aware that not everyone adapts easy to exercises. Body might  have different reactions - tiredness, sore muscle. But it will be worth it 🙂 

Main Exercises

(**videos coming soon)

At Home? Here You Go!

Exercises for home : 

1. Sofa/chair squats 
2. Jogging on the spot
3. Shoulder press Lifting weights / water bottles above your head 
4. Press ups. Start from the easiest version : Box press ups if it's too easy move to half pressup.
5. Glute bridges
6. Lunges on the spot
7. Back hypertension 
8. Stair climb or high knee lifts on the spot
9. Crunches 

At the Gym? Here You Go!

1. seated squats / trx squats 
2. Shoulder press 
3. Press ups / chest press on the machine
4. Glute bridges
5. Lunges on the spot 
6. Rowing ( can be trx or machine) 
7. Step ups 
8. Crunches

Getting Ready for Your Second Week...

After you have completed 3 sessions you potentially can move to week 2, however, if you were really struggling with workouts there is no harm in repeating Week 1 again.

Or, at least, complete the last workout before moving on to next week.

WEEK 2 is going to be slightly more challenging. I would also recommend you do some brisk walking / jogging, cycling or swimming through out the entire process.

It will help with the results! 🙂

You’re Officially a Star!

No matter how well you do the exercises or if you find it difficult at times, just the fact that you’re here trying your best makes you a star in my eyes.

And remember: listen to your body, never take it for granted, it's our home treat with respect and care! Enjoy your workouts 🙂

How do you get fit quick? There are a multitude of complex fitness and dietary regimes. It is better to seek out simple solutions. Learn more about how to speed up your fat loss with 3 simple steps.

1. Forget About Cheat Days, Have Chat Meals Instead

People can become obsessive over cheat days and overload on unhealthy food and drink. It is more sustainable to occasionally include cheat meals. It is important to be mindful and aware of how your body reacts to unhealthy treats.

A whole cheat day could set you back and slow down your fat loss. Maintaining a healthy mind is as important as a healthy body. Having a few cheat meals a week may be more manageable and could help you achieve your goals faster.

2. Increase Your Daily Activities (not Only in the Gym)

Staying active throughout the day can speed up your fat loss. This may be easier said than done. If you work in an office, it may be difficult to squeeze moderate activity in to a normal business day.

Time spent in the gym is important, but you need to do more if you want to speed up your fat loss. Increasing the intensity and speed with which you go about daily activities like walking to work can make you fitter. It is also a good idea to incorporate some hobbies that involve movement and muscular activity in to your daily life.

3. Track Yourself

Keeping track of your progress is a great way to speed up your fat loss. There are many ways of tracking yourself now that are relatively hassle-free. You can chart your weight loss with a set of scales, a pen and some paper. This is the simple old-fashioned way of tracking your fitness.

Nowadays there are various methods involving apps that can also track you progress in more complex ways. The best workout apps enable you to log your hours of exercise and get to grips with your weight loss progress.

If you are regularly exercising, tracking yourself is also a great way to stay motivated. Seeing your body develop because of the exercise you are doing can be encouraging. If you are motivated, you also more likely to continue working out. Overall, properly tracking yourself can instigate a cycle of fitness success!

Getting Healthy

If you follow these three simple steps, you will quicken your route to a successful fitness regime. Fat loss requires a particular type of resilience. Thankfully, you will be able to see the results in no time.

Tracking your progress is a simple and easy way of staying aware of the changes in your body. You will feel more motivated if you can track your weight loss journey. There are other methods of speeding up fat loss but the three we have discussed above are simple, cheap and reliable.

If you are looking for a personal trainer to improve your fitness feel free to get in touch!

Female personal trainer Justina helps her readers with interesting articles regarding personal training and related issues.

Articles like this one show how strict diets are not necessary for a body transformation. In this article I'll talk about how to transform your body at home in 12 weeks. Also, I will provide valuable insights on how to prepare for the training sessions at home, what it takes to transform your body and what you can expect after the first month of training.

1. Where to start?

• Keep track of everything you eat. Understanding and reviewing your diet is a must before starting any body transformation. Objectively evaluate your daily food intake by keeping a food journal for at least a week. Keep track of each little snack and you will be able to see what can be improved. After reviewing your diet, you can think of your body transformation goals – make them achievable and don’t be too strict on yourself. Meal planners like this one, this one or this one can help you get started organised. Also helpful articles like this one,and this one  might be of help.
• Find the perfect place. In order to successfully train at home, you have to find the right space for it first. All you need is the space of 2 m x 1.6 m (max) so that you could easily spread your arms in all directions.
• Keep motivated. Think about your motivational background: do you perform best in a quiet environment or do you need music or a TV show to keep you motivated during the training sessions? Choose what is best for you!

2. What equipment do you need?

People often think that in order to workout at home, they need to invest a lot of money in training equipment. Although, training at home requires just a few simple pieces of equipment, which do not cost a lot. Whatever the goals of your body transformation might be (fat loss or muscle gain), you only need a few essentials to start with:

• Resistance bands. (See them here). The maximum price for these bands should be up to £30.
• Training mat. (See them here). A training mat is essential for safe training at home. The prices can vary from £8 to £50 depending on your budget.
• Skipping rope. (See them here). This piece of training equipment is great for cardiovascular exercises. The prices may vary from £2 to £10.
• Other equipment (optional). You might need some other equipment, but it is not required for the beginners. If you decide that you can expand you training equipment collection, I would advise purchasing adjustable weights rack (here) or dumbbell set (here) (£15-£150), pull up bar (£20-£50) and ankle/wrist weights (£10-40£).

3. How training session at home looks like (in terms of duration, intensity and frequency)

The duration of you home training session may vary depending on your goal, physical level, availability and many other factors. The average home workout should last for 45 min-1 hour (maximum). 10-15 minutes of warm up exercises will prepare your muscles and joints for the workout. Your warming up part of training programme could include skipping rope, running and sprinting on the spot, jumping jacks, shadow boxing and similar movements for the whole body.

The intensity of your workout highly depends on your fitness level and goals. The idea is simple: the more intense your training programme is, the more calories you are going to burn.

The frequency of you training sessions at home (if you want to achieve visible results) has to be at least 4-6 times a week. Remember one thing: the more dedicated you are, the greater results you are going to achieve.

Have a look at some of my videos to get an idea of different workout/exercises, but I would get started with the ones mentioned before to keep it simple at first.

4. What results can I expect in one month?

Everything depends on your motivation and efforts – the harder you are going to work, the quicker you will boost your metabolism. The safest strategy of body transformation is losing around 700 g of fat every week. So in one month you could expect losing about 3.5 kg, but this amount can vary from 2 kg to 5 kg. Don't forget that slight muscle loss is expected too in the beginning of body transformation.

5) What are the best exercises for body transformation?

The best exercises for body transformation are the ones that involve the whole body:

• Squats (Video: squats for beginners)
• Lunges (Video: lunges for beginners)
• Step ups (use the chair)
• Dips and press ups (great for shaping your upper body)
• Shoulder press (use dumbbells or plastic water bottles)
• Skipping
• Burpees (Video: how to do a burpee)
• Jumping jacks
• Pull ups/chin ups (if you can’t do it at home, you can do these exercises outside – the majority of London parks has pull up bars or monkey bars)

Use your imagination by creating various combinations of exercises and modify your exercise programme often. If you need help, contact a professional. Be careful with social media – not all information and advice found on it can be trusted. Your body transformation will only be successful if you know what you are doing and perform exercises correctly.

6. Is HIIT training enough for body transformation?

Having a HIIT workout plan is great if your main goal is fat loss. But if you want to shape your body and avoid “hanging skin” effect, you should consider having a more versatile training programme.

To sum up, a few simple steps that can create a big change in your body. Having enough motivation and knowledge, you can workout at home and achieve great results. The most important thing to have in mind though is that you have to do it right, otherwise, it won’t be effective and can even be harmful. Contact a professional trainer to help you with your home workout plan if you are not completely sure. I’m here to help!

Complementary Resources:

- On dieting, weight loss and physical exercise in obese individuals- A roadmap for sustaining healthy eating behaviour- General articles on diet/nutrition

Check out my body transformation posts series below:

• What is Body Transformation?
• Sustainable Body Transformation. Things You Must Know
• 6 Professional Tips for Body Transformation: Doing it the Right Way
• Preparing for Body Transformation

And:

• The first 2 weeks inside a brand new body transformation programme by Justina

Let's Work Together!

Get in touch using any of the links/info below. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Email: [email protected]Mobile (text or call): 07944 916 9906Say hello on Facebook!: facebook.com/justinatraining Contact Justina: justinatraining.com/contact