5 Tips on How to Survive Your 1st Month of Training

After 6 weeks since I began my new workout regime at the Sports Mall with Bobbi, I’ve learned a few things. Before Thanksgiving my work out was walking from my work parking garage to my desk. Now I work out 5-6 days a week doing weights, Zumba, and elliptical. Heaven help my legs, and arms, and any of those muscles I don’t know the names of.

Needless to say, this didn’t come without a fair amount of pain and adjusting. Here are 5 tips to help transition from sedentary to speedy:

1. Buy Epsom Salt: I don’t care what brand, but this will be your best friend. I don’t like to take Ibuprofen or other medicines unless absolutely necessary, but I don’t like limping and groaning like a wounded animal through daily routines either. A warm bath with Epsom salt will help ease the pain. I took a bath every other night for the first 2 weeks.
2. Food Journal: Hate to beat a dead horse, but there’s a reason this one is recommended so often; it works if used properly. I have reached for a saltine cracker and then dropped it like it was on fire because I wasn’t hungry and didn’t want to write it down. Leave nothing out and the journal will make you focus on what you eat.
3. Books on Tape: My best friend turned me onto this one. What do you do when you you’ve gone through your workout play list for the 6^th time, and you don’t want to spend money to buy more? Enter the library application OverDrive. Download it, enter your library information, and check out an audio book. If you end up on the hold list, you can always listen to podcasts from iTunes. If you’re working out anyway, you might as well use the cardio time to get smarter too.
4. Seemingly simple tasks will wind you: I’ll admit, I thought I was a lot more fit than I was. Wishful thinking leads to painful reality. Stepping—mind you not jumping, just stepping—had me huffing more than the big bad wolf after 3 minutes. Just use this knowledge as motivation to keep coming back and improve. Easier said than done, but that’s where a personal trainer becomes a big benefit as well.
5. Just Keep Moving: In between personal training sessions, I’m in charge of participating in more workout sessions and cardio. My 2 favorite choices are Zumba and the elliptical. While on a normal day you might be able to ease through the elliptical on resistance 8, when you’re so sore you drop on the toilet to keep from feeling the pain in your quads, your cardio will have to ease up as well. Keep the mental bullying to a minimum, and remember that you’re there and putting in the effort. The cardio and muscle endurance will be all the more relieving later.

While I didn’t ease into the transition, I can honestly tell I’m making progress. No lies, the first 2 weeks I couldn’t lift my arms above my head, and I would avoid stairs at all cost, but I am beginning to adjust. I can finally do a full 3 sets of squats without seeing stars from loss of breathe. I also just increased the weights for my triceps by 5 pounds. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still sore, but I’m not going through Epsom salt like it’s my elixir. Take it at your own pace, and the results will show accordingly.

About the Author: Ashley Hasna is a movie, book, and food lover (hence the needing to shed some inches) who loves to work with social media. Despite eating healthy, she still loves brownies. Follow her on Twitter.