How do I start Fitness as a woman?

Geschatte leestijd: 6 minuten We can be very brief about it: fitness, or strength training, is the way to get in shape and work on more self-confidence. This has been discussed earlier in my article: more self-confidence through strength training.

Getting started with fitness

In principle, it’s easy to walk into a gym, get a subscription, and get started. However, for most people, this doesn’t lead to much progress. Most gyms offer little guidance, and the provided training schedules often don’t yield the best results. Naturally, you can always search online for information on how to best proceed. Unfortunately, there’s more bad information available than good, so you’ll likely make quite a few mistakes before you’re on the right track. It seems like nowadays, everyone who has undergone a transformation is writing training schedules for others or even offering online personal training. If you’re a well-known person, it can be very lucrative to dive into this, as you have a lot of followers who often trust you blindly and look up to you. Undoubtedly, most of it is well-intentioned, and the person behind the program wants to help others become the best version of themselves, but does being in good shape automatically mean you can teach others to achieve the same?

Social media

Every day, I see videos on Instagram and Facebook of interesting-looking exercises by fit individuals encouraging others to do the same. However, often it’s more about entertainment than proper training; it looks nice but doesn’t really add much value. It gets worse when exercises can be dangerous and cause lasting damage, such as to your back. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for me to come across such things. A good training schedule is meant to produce results, and that doesn’t mean it has to include all sorts of fancy exercises. The basics remain ‘the basics’ and should be the foundation of every program.

Basic Strength Training Course

The following 6 exercises provide you with a good foundation to get started independently at the gym. Of course, there are variations for each exercise that can make it easier or more difficult. If these aren’t mentioned in the video itself, I’ll mention them later.

Core Training

Training your core, the center of your body, is often seen as doing sit-ups, crunches, or other exercises commonly seen in ab workouts. Although these exercises remain very popular, this is not how you ensure a strong core. The goal when it comes to core training is to create good core stability. As described in the video, this means keeping the core of your body strong, for example, when stability is required between your upper and lower body. The foundation of practically every exercise starts with good core stability. It’s wise to work on this directly when you’re just starting out with fitness or to improve it if you’re already working out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMBTbBA4SL8

The Squat

The squat is seen as the best exercise for developing your legs. So it’s no wonder that squats are included in almost every fitness program. In the video below, Frency and I explain how to perform the (front) squat and show the most common mistakes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaDxlXjqxRA

It goes without saying that you should master the exercise without extra resistance first, the so-called air squat or bodyweight squat, before squatting with a barbell on your back. The quality of the movement always takes priority over the quantity of weight. This way, you create a better training stimulus and prevent injuries. The squat is a ‘knee-dominant’ exercise, meaning that the movement mainly occurs at the knee joint, thereby primarily engaging the quadriceps muscles. Additionally, you also train the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. Some variations or similar exercises for the (front) squat:

• Box Squat
• Goblet Squat
• Split Squat
• Leg Press
• Lunges

The Deadlift

The deadlift is after the squat one of the exercises that engages a large number of muscles, especially in the lower body. Although there are different variations of the deadlift, in this article we’re referring to ‘the’ deadlift, which you could see as the Romanian deadlift. Other forms include stiff-legged deadlift, straight-leg deadlift, and American deadlift. Since the differences between the variants are not always very easy for a beginner to distinguish, we want to focus primarily on the form as shown in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dXLogjH5KM

The key points are well explained in the video. A common mistake is often increasing the weight too quickly, which compromises the execution. First, try to perfect the technique and then slowly increase the weight. With the deadlift, you train the posterior chain, the muscles at the back of the body such as your hamstrings, glutes, erector spinae, and trapezius. Additionally, the quadriceps, forearms, and biceps are also heavily engaged. Some variations of the Romanian deadlift mentioned earlier are quite similar. However, there are also deadlift variations or similar exercises that stress your body in a slightly different way. Some examples:

• Sumo Deadlift
• One-leg deadlift
• One-leg landmine deadlift
• Good Morning

The Hip Thrust

The hip thrust, also known as the queen of glute exercises, has gained tremendous popularity lately. It’s no wonder, considering that with this exercise, you can perfectly train your glutes, both with heavy weight and low repetitions as well as with fewer kilos and more repetitions. This all-round glute builder should not be missing from your schedule if you want to develop your buttocks more or improve your athletic ability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z6Rs5EjtNM

One of the most common mistakes during hip thrusts is excessive movement from your lower back, where you arch your back as you come up. Try to focus entirely on your glutes, for which you can tilt your pelvis slightly upwards if necessary. You should feel your glutes working well, especially when doing many repetitions. In addition to the glutes, the hip thrust also trains the lower back and hamstrings. Placing your feet further away from your body engages more of your hamstrings, while placing them closer to your body requires more from your glutes. Some variations of the Hip Thrust:

• One-leg hip thrust
• One-leg elevated hip thrust
• Feet elevated hip thrust
• Glute bridge
• Pullthrough (not a hip thrust, but hip extension)

Chin-ups

One of the most versatile and also toughest exercises for the upper body is pull-ups, also known as chin-ups. It takes quite a bit of strength to pull your body up, which is why the exercise is often skipped or performed with incomplete Range Of Motion (movement path). In the video below, we demonstrate how the exercise should be performed and show adjustments you can make when you need some assistance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ppebaPcrLQ

For an optimal training stimulus, perform the movement over the full range of motion, so you mainly engage the latissimus dorsi, trapezius, and biceps. The grip with which you perform the exercise can vary, determining the name of the exercise. Using an underhand grip is called chin-ups (supinated). With a neutral grip at shoulder width, it’s also called chin-ups (parallel or neutral), and with an overhand grip, we call it pull-ups (pronated). These terms can sometimes be confusing, but most strength coaches use them. Some variations of the chin-up:

• Pull up (as mentioned earlier)
• Pull down (supinated, parallel, or pronated)
• Subscapularis chin-up/pull down

Other ‘pull’ movements but horizontal instead of vertical:

• Seated Pulley Row
• One-arm dumbbell row
• Barbell row

Push-ups

Besides the chin-up, the push-up is perhaps the most well-known exercise for the upper body. Nevertheless, it’s rarely performed, especially by athletes who have been involved in fitness for a longer time. For many people, it may be more appealing to move a lot of weight in a bench press, for example, but doing push-ups contributes to maintaining or gaining good shoulder stability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP3BMaBMxW0

In the video, you can see how the exercise can be made easier. One way to make push-ups more challenging is by elevating your feet instead of placing your hands on a raised surface. This ensures that a larger part of your body weight is supported on your upper body, and therefore, you have to push away more resistance. This way, you can continue to work on good shoulder stability and perform an exercise for your chest and triceps that is challenging enough. Variations on the push-up have already been mentioned or shown in the video. Other horizontal ‘push’ movements include:

• bench press
• dumbbell press
• machine chest press

Push movements can also be made vertical. You have, among others, the following options:

• Standing barbell press
• Standing dumbbell press
• Seated barbell press
• Seated dumbbell press

Creating a complete training schedule

A good training schedule incorporates all the exercises shown in the videos. It’s not necessary to literally do the exact exercises demonstrated; using a variation is also possible or even advisable. By varying the exercises you do, you give your entire body an optimal training stimulus and prevent adaptation. For example, after a period of 6 weeks of doing squats, exchange them for split squats or front squats. However, you can also use both exercises side by side to get stronger faster or to master motor skills more quickly if you are a beginner. See also my article ‘How to get stronger quickly in the hip thrust’.

Only for beginners?

This article and the videos are primarily intended to help beginners make the right start in the gym. However, even if you’ve been doing fitness for a longer time, you can benefit from it. Perhaps your technique isn’t optimal yet or you recognize some mistakes mentioned in the videos? If you haven’t done a certain exercise until now, maybe you can start working on it now. Either way, I’d love to hear how it helps you in the comments!