5 Fundamental Movements to Master For Beginners

5 Fundamental Movements to Master For Beginners

Sep 08, 20210 comments

Taking up a new hobby or pastime is never easy. There are always things you have to get used to, schedules that change and other events in life that get in the way. When it comes to physical activity, people are always able to find an excuse to get around doing what needs to be done. Whether it’s too much work, the kids acting up, not being in the mood or just being plain tired. According to U.S News, 80% of New Year’s resolutions are dropped within two months with a large part, 55% of those resolutions, being health-based.

Keeping Fit: It’s Not Only About Muscle

An everyday workout is essential to maintaining your physical fitness as well as health. Regular and sustained moderate physical exercise of at least one hour per day has been shown to result in numerous health benefits, not only physical but mental and emotional as well. These include a decreased risk of cardiovascular diseases such as diabetes, stroke, and heart attack. This decreased risk also applies to bones with physical exercise leading to stronger bones, joints and ligaments which leads not only to a decreased risk of injury but also a decreased rate of osteoporosis.

When it comes to the mental/emotional standpoint, persistent physical exercise, particularly during mornings has been shown to boost both mood and energy levels through the day. It does this by increasing the rates of dopamine and endorphins in your bloodstream. These hormones are mood regulators and also play a key role in stress management. This is why physical exercise has also been linked to decreased rates of anxiety and depression. Finally, exercise has been shown to improve symptoms of insomnia by increasing both the length and quality of sleep for participants who exercised regularly compared to those who did not.

Developing A Workout Routine: What, When and Why

Before deciding on what fitness equipment to pick out for your home gym, you need to first work out your goals. If you are reading this article, you would most likely classify yourself as a beginner so the bodybuilding approach to fitness shouldn’t apply to you. As a beginner, whether new to strength training or someone getting back into it after a long time, your body requires time to adapt. A scheduled and fixed workout routine is necessary to give your body the time to adapt as well as turn the workout routine into a habit. If you instead rely on going for a workout whenever you’re “in the mood” you’ll be able to find a whole host of excuses.

The Full Body Workout: Why It’s Effective

One of the most effective exercise routines championed for beginners is the full body workout. It consists of performing exercises with fitness equipment that target as many muscle groups as possible at a time. This tends to generally involve more aerobic exercises (i.e. exercises that involve long periods of moderate exertion such as jogging, swimming, cycling and more).

The full body workout is crucial for the beginner since it gives the body the base it needs before you progress further into intermediate or advanced levels of strength and weight training which involve putting more stress on the body. For those that decided to focus on certain muscle groups whilst not being ready for it, those people tend to suffer higher rates of injury and muscle imbalance.

Muscle imbalance is caused from the overworking of one part of the body's muscle groups as opposed to the other. This imbalance in the body is the cause of more injuries involving tearing muscles, joints as well as pains and aches. Settling on a one-size fits all approach in the beginning is important to having your body ready for the physical exertion required in strength training, sort of like the motto of learning how to crawl before learning how to walk.

Most Fundamental Movements for Exercise

There are some key base components that are required for you to grasp proper technique. Learning how to implement these properly will not only reduce your risk of injury but also improve the effectiveness of your workout.

  1. Pushing and Pulling: Pushing and pulling is the process of bringing a weight closer to your body or further away. Pulling open a car door, pushing open a door, pulling out ice cream out of the fridge at 12am or slamming the car horn are all part of your body’s natural movement. Knowing how to implement this in a weightlifting setting is important. Pushing and pulling is influenced most by your arm and pectoral strength. Therefore, it’s key to work on these body parts first with exercises such as pushups, pullups, or shoulder presses.
  2. Rotational: Rotation comes from the hips; it allows you to twist to put your seatbelt on or look out the car window while staying put. Your rotational movement is key for exercises involving our lower body. To strengthen this muscle group, incorporate exercises such as the kettlebell twist, rotational throws with medicine balls and more.
  3. Single Sided: This refers to times when you move one part of your body whilst the other remains still, this is an important key to balance which is crucial if you ever plan on lifting weights and not hurting yourself in the process. Whether it’s walking, or running, cycling, or playing sports, everything requires balance and flexibility. To improve this, regular aerobic exercise or lunges are perfect for warming up your muscles.
  4. Bending: Bending is another key of movement. Whether picking up your child’s toys strewn across the floor or crouching down to look for that long-lost candy bar in the pantry you swear is still where you left it, bending is a movement that’s essential to our daily lives. Bending is done through our joints and ligaments. In order to practice this movement, practice your squatting, sit-ups or plain old stretching by reaching for your toes or leaning backwards.

Once you’ve mastered these basic movements, you’re ready to move on to your fitness routine. Make sure to order from a fitness store that provides you with equipment of all shapes and sizes that suits your fitness level and is able to provide the most balanced workout for you. If you ever need a wide variety of fitness gear at affordable prices, shop online at our store at www.fitnessavenue.ca where you can get high quality strength equipment, weights, fitness accessories, eBikes and more for all your home gym needs today!

More articles

4 Workouts Using Only a Kettlebell?
Sep 01, 2021
Maintaining one’s fitness has become more important than ever with work, school and entertainment all...
How To Choose the Best Lifting Belt
Oct 10, 2021
Whether we like to admit it or not, health problems related to inactivity and lack...