Where Do You Start?-5-Tips To Start Your Fitness Routine Off To a Great Start

For many Black women, the thought of beginning a resistance-training program is an exciting and life changing adventure. However, this excitement often gets replaced with feelings of frustration, confusion and a fear surrounding the myth that if they begin lifting weights, then they will begin to look "bulky" and "manly"!

These feelings of frustration and fear of weight lifting is often the result of not knowing where or how to start. With very few fitness books created for Black women, fitness misinformation on social media can often leave Black women are often left feeling overwhelmed, confused and discouraged to even start their fitness journey!

Have you ever felt this way? If you have, you're not alone!

I want to empower you with the "how" behind how to get started on your fitness and weight-lifting journey with the five-following steps!

Are you ready? 

Let’s get started!

Step # 1. Discover Your Body Type

Discovering your body type is an important step in creating an individualized resistance-training program to meet your individualized fitness goals. Having an understanding of your body type will help you set realistic goals and expectations and relieve you from trying to make your other people’s fitness program work for you. It is common for individuals to be a combination of two body types. The three main body types are mesomorph, ectomorph and endomorph. Check out my fitness-training book "Fit, Tight and Toned" where I go into a deeper dive of each body type and provide sample fitness training workouts!

Step # 2. Be Specific with Your Fitness Goals 

Making the broad statement that you want to become fit is not concrete nor objective. Your definition of being fit needs narrowing down to a more specific or objective goal. Do you want to lose weight, gain lean muscle, become stronger, get a more toned appearance or improve your cardiovascular conditioning? Whatever your goal, it needs to be clearly defined. Once your goal is clearly defined, you can begin taking the necessary steps required to reach your desired outcome.

Step # 3. Measure and Assess

Measurements are an essential component to the success and progress of your fitness or resistance-training program. Therefore, prior to starting your fitness program, it is important to gather a baseline of information to determine a starting point and an ending point. How will you know if you’re making progress towards your desired goal if you don’t know where you started? One of the most common ways to determine your body composition (muscle tissue, water, bone and body fat percentage) is to use a smart scale. The information gathered will give you an accurate picture of what the numbers on the scale are composed of. I use the Eros Smart Body Scale to keep track of my body composition.

Step # 4: Determine How Many Days You Can Train

Once you determine your goals and have completed your body composition measurements, it’s time to realistically determine how many days per week you are willing and able to dedicate to working out. Be honest and realistic with yourself. If you can only start with two days a week, some physical activity is better than no exercise at all. If you're a beginner to resistance-training or weight training, it is recommended that you do at minimum two days of resistance-training performing total body workouts (find done for your workouts in my fitness-training book " Fit, Tight and Toned).

Step # 5: Create a Plan of Action

If your goal is to do more push-ups within a minute and build upper body strength, then a plan of action to build upper body strength is required. If you desire better cardiovascular conditioning, a cardiovascular program needs to be designed. Whatever your goals, your plan of action needs to create the right steps to help you reach your destination. 

Use These Steps to Move Forward! 

Making the decision to get fit and invest in your health is by far one of the best investments you will ever make. Therefore, as you start or continue your fitness journey, take these 5-steps to help you along your way towards better overall health!

Still confused about how many sets your perform, how many repetitions you need to do in order to reach your fitness goals, how many days of the week you should lift, what to eat before and after your workouts to lose weight and tone? If you answered yes, check out my new fitness-training book entitled " Fit, Tight and Toned-A Black Woman's Fitness Road Map to Fit, Tight and Toned Curves"! .

Fitness Done For You

Are you ready to get past your fears of lifting weights and need a done-for-you fitness program to help you save time, burn stubborn body fat and feel great in your own skin? If you are check out my new DIY Fitness Program Fit-N-5 !

Email me for questions regarding my new fitness-training book, online personal training or additional fitness services that I offer at fittighttoned@gmail.com.

Here's to helping you become, fit, tight and toned! 

Laticia "Action" Jackson

About the Author:

Featured on TV stations such as Fox 40, ABC 10, and NBC News as well as featured in over 30 health and fitness magazines such as Oxygen Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, Strong Fitness and Flex Magazine as a thought leader on population health, women’s health and minority health, Laticia “Action” Jackson is a Fitness Olympian, 13 x Wellness Author, Globally Recognized Health and Fitness Expert and Owner of Well Content 4 U! Her passion is to help prevent chronic illnesses and empower individuals to take control of their health and well-being. take ownership of their health and well-being by providing relevant and evidence-based wellness information delivered through content, wellness workshops and online wellness programs.