Fitness
4 Weight Training Tips for Beginners
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You did it! You made the decision to get fit and take on a new workout challenge—weight training. So where do you start? Success with weights (and in the gym) begins with a plan and evaluating your eating habits to best support your routine.
No matter your exercise experience, here are my four tips for your first time with weights:
Set a goal.
The first step on any fitness journey should be to set a tangible and attainable goal. The best way to track progress is to have something you are working toward and to measure against. The goal can be an ideal weight or the number of days to make it to the gym or class each week. The Mindbody app helps you keep track of the classes (and services) you’ve participated in, which is an excellent way to track against your goal. As you make strides toward your goal, it should be adjustable so you can continue to push forward!
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Set a goal.
The first step on any fitness journey should be to set a tangible and attainable goal. The best way to track progress is to have something you are working toward and to measure against. The goal can be an ideal weight or the number of days to make it to the gym or class each week. The Mindbody app helps you keep track of the classes (and services) you’ve participated in, which is an excellent way to track against your goal. As you make strides toward your goal, it should be adjustable so you can continue to push forward!
Work out at home, first.
One of my favorite sayings ever is, “Your fitness journey is a marathon, not a sprint.” This really resonates with me now, especially as I look back to six years ago when I decided to dedicate myself to a healthier lifestyle. A gym atmosphere can be very intimidating at the beginning of anyone’s process. I wasn’t comfortable enough yet with my physical progress to set foot in the gym, but I was ready to make a change. The solution for me was to train at home first. For a half-hour each day, five days a week, I would have an intense timed workout at home. For legs, I would do step-ups on a chair or lunges. For abs, I would do sit-ups and mountain climbers. For chest and arms, I would do push-ups.
I set a date as a goal, that I would go to the gym at the end of that summer. In the interim, I developed a solid foundation at home, that helped me feel more comfortable once it was time to go to the gym. This is a helpful tool I recommend for any beginner to bypass “gymtimidation.” Practice goal-setting and develop consistent positive behavior. In terms of which workouts to do at home, that leads us to our next step!
2
Work out at home, first.
One of my favorite sayings ever is, “Your fitness journey is a marathon, not a sprint.” This really resonates with me now, especially as I look back to six years ago when I decided to dedicate myself to a healthier lifestyle. A gym atmosphere can be very intimidating at the beginning of anyone’s process. I wasn’t comfortable enough yet with my physical progress to set foot in the gym, but I was ready to make a change. The solution for me was to train at home first. For a half-hour each day, five days a week, I would have an intense timed workout at home. For legs, I would do step-ups on a chair or lunges. For abs, I would do sit-ups and mountain climbers. For chest and arms, I would do push-ups.
I set a date as a goal, that I would go to the gym at the end of that summer. In the interim, I developed a solid foundation at home, that helped me feel more comfortable once it was time to go to the gym. This is a helpful tool I recommend for any beginner to bypass “gymtimidation.” Practice goal-setting and develop consistent positive behavior. In terms of which workouts to do at home, that leads us to our next step!
Use your resources.
Here on The Ensō, there are tons of helpful articles with tips and tricks. Also, the Mindbody app is an excellent resource to find professional wellness coaches in your area. These coaches can answer questions and provide educated direction based on your fitness goals. Believe it or not, the internet is still an underutilized tool when it comes to using it as a means of education for workout routines, nutrition, and the science behind them. Using reputable resources available to you, such as a professional coach or an instructional video, are excellent ways to ensure you are working out correctly.
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Use your resources.
Here on The Ensō, there are tons of helpful articles with tips and tricks. Also, the Mindbody app is an excellent resource to find professional wellness coaches in your area. These coaches can answer questions and provide educated direction based on your fitness goals. Believe it or not, the internet is still an underutilized tool when it comes to using it as a means of education for workout routines, nutrition, and the science behind them. Using reputable resources available to you, such as a professional coach or an instructional video, are excellent ways to ensure you are working out correctly.
Go slow.
My last tip is to slow it down. To gain the best results and avoid injury, this is extremely important. At this point, you have a goal, a solid foundation, and have used tools available to you to be prepared. Going slow can be how you attack your goal or just taking your time once you are actively training your muscles. Working at your own pace is largely imperative and, more times than not, going slowing creates more tension in a targeted muscle-building workout. The more time under tension, the higher chance there is for hypertrophy, or muscle growth.
Explore new classes and trainers on your journey with weight training through the Mindbody app or Mindbody.io!
4
Go slow.
My last tip is to slow it down. To gain the best results and avoid injury, this is extremely important. At this point, you have a goal, a solid foundation, and have used tools available to you to be prepared. Going slow can be how you attack your goal or just taking your time once you are actively training your muscles. Working at your own pace is largely imperative and, more times than not, going slowing creates more tension in a targeted muscle-building workout. The more time under tension, the higher chance there is for hypertrophy, or muscle growth.
Explore new classes and trainers on your journey with weight training through the Mindbody app or Mindbody.io!
Wellness
What is Wellness?
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To say the last year and a half was tough would be an understatement. In fact, it will probably go down as one of the most difficult times for our modern generation. In one of the many social polls we conducted during the pandemic, some of you described this time as a sheer “dumpster fire” or “like stepping on a Lego.” And to be honest, I couldn’t agree more.
Luckily, we’ve been able to get back to some form of normalcy in our lives and wellness routines over the last several months. As vaccines became available to the public, wellness businesses welcomed fitness fanatics, haircut seekers, and massage lovers back to in-person wellness experiences. And thank goodness for that—my roots and horrible posture from working from my bed were both getting wildly out of control. This girl needed a good massage and cupping session stat.
If there’s one thing we learned from the pandemic, it’s that our wellness routines are as personal as they are important. During shelter-at-home, those routines looked a bit different. For many, it meant taking a new approach to the “typical” wellness services we count on—I’m looking at you DIY haircuts, at-home waxing sessions (ouch!), and virtual swerking classes.
Now that we can leave our humble abodes to take advantage of in-person experiences again, the word “wellness” has seemingly taken on a new meaning.
Recently, we conducted another one of our famous social polls to see what wellness means to you, our Mindbody community, now that we're slowly but surely getting back to our regularly scheduled programming. We also tapped some of our most influential Mindbody business owners about the ever-evolving wellness landscape.
Here’s what you all had to say.
Wellness is more important to you than ever
According to our annual Mindbody Wellness Index, 60% of Americans say they’re more focused on their health and wellness since COVID. Consumers are now realizing they need to take greater care of themselves to optimize and preserve their health. When we asked you on Instagram how important wellness is, a whopping 98% said it was more important than ever. When it comes to how you’re practicing wellness, though, the answers were all over the board. Many of you pointed to journaling, practicing breathwork, and daily workout routines (cycling and yoga topped the list) as being the activities that help you keep your chill throughout the week.
I’m also happy to report that over 50% said you tend to feel more blessed than stressed on a daily basis—which is more than likely a big improvement. Let’s be honest, a year ago I would’ve bet a billion dollars that 99.9% of us knew no other feeling than anxiety—am I right? But even with the stress in our lives dwindling, many of you are still experiencing burnout at the end of a long work week (guilty!). But instead of succumbing to a bottle of wine for relief (please, that was so 2020), you’re unwinding by going to your favorite workout classes—with hot yoga, barre, and Pilates as your faves.
What wellness means to the pros
Let’s be honest, we should credit the business owners in this space for helping us reignite our spark when it comes to our wellness routines, right? Thanks to them, we’ve been inspired to prioritize the activities that help us feel our best. In turn, we thought it’d be interesting to learn what wellness means to them—and how that definition has changed over the past eighteen months.
Here’s what they had to say.
“Wellness is living in balance—mind, body, spirit. Highs and lows. It all ebbs and flows and we can navigate it a bit better when we take time to move, breath and remember who we are, and how we are connected to this big, beautiful world.” - Jess Pierno, Founder, Owner, and Chief Inspiration Officer of Yoga Heights
“Wellness is a true balancing of the mental, physical, and spiritual. It has definitely evolved over the years for me—from something that I just thought was about exercising and eating a healthy diet—to also incorporating balancing and healing internally and spiritually.” - Stefanie Patterson, Owner, Indianapolis Salt Cave and Halotherapy Center
“My sense of wellness has evolved from staying healthy and motivated, mind/body/spirit... to being more gentle with myself, less demanding. Accepting my limitations, taking time for resting, and gaining real clarity about what's important. I care less about what people think of me—difficult as a performer and as a business owner with so many demands on me—and more about getting quiet and tapping into the divine source inside of me that helps me discern my next move. In this way, I know my motives are as pure as possible and I'm not getting distracted—not that I don't make mistakes! Those are necessary, that's how we learn!” - Johanna Krynytzky, Owner, Hip Expressions Belly Dance Studio
“My studio name reminds us that we are constantly evolving. The past 18 months have certainly shown us that! Wellness to me means doing your best on any given day to make sure that you are taking care of yourself as best you can. It leads to resilience. Diet, exercise, sleep, a sense of community, and some form of faith. It all matters. Setbacks happen all the time, and every day is a chance to start again. We strive to be 'cheerleaders' for our clients when we sense that things are coming out of balance in their lives. So many have been with us for 18 years and are friends—they are our community and we all watch out for each other.” - Mo Wolfe, Owner and Founder, Evolution Pilates
Putting wellness into action
I think we can all agree that there isn’t one true definition of wellness anymore. To some of us, it means getting that hot yoga sesh in daily, and to others, it means carving out time to treat ourselves to a massage or manicure. As long as you’re actively pursuing wellness—whatever that means to you—you're on the right track.
Our MO has always been about connecting the world to wellness—a term that's seen a lot of change lately. Whether you’re fully embracing the in-person experience or still delighted by the convenience of practicing at-home wellness, the Mindbody app makes it easy for you to book experiences that help you feel like YOU again.
