Tips for New Athletes
The following are tips that do not have to do with diet:
1) Suggestion to Help You Keep Track of Your Exercise and How Much to Exercise: Researchers recommend that healthy adults implement at least 150 minutes of moderate activity per week, or at least 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week. They also recommend strength training at least twice a week.
To figure out if you’re using moderate activity, you want to figure out your average maximum heartrate. It’s approximately 220 subtracted by your age. Once you know your average maximum heartrate, you can figure out how many beats per minute you need in order to have your activity be considered as moderate. It’s 50% to 70% of your average maximum heartrate. To figure out if you’re using vigorous activity, you want to figure out what’s 70% to 85% of your average maximum heartrate.
If you have a busy schedule and you’re not really cognizant of how many times/ minutes you’re working out per week, I find making a spreadsheet that keeps track of and calculates all of the times/ minutes you have worked out each day extremely helpful. An example of a spreadsheet is below:
In case you're not in the loop about how to add different numbers in columns using a formula on Excel, type the following in the cell you want the total of your addition equation in: =sum(column letter and first row number here: column letter and last row number here), e.g., =sum(B2:B8) would yield 160 in the spreadsheet that's shown above.
2) Stretching: Before working out, it's helpful to stretch at least 15 seconds for each muscle group that you're about to use. According to researchers, 15 seconds is the bare minimum for each stretch to actually make a difference. It's also a good idea to stretch after you work out too.