
‘This year, I am going to starting exercising.’
‘I want to stay healthy and fit.’
‘I want to get into better shape.’
How to safely get into exercise?
Is getting active one of your new year’s resolutions in 2020? Whether you exercise regularly but have stopped as you were too busy celebrating the festive season or you have never exercised before, pay attention to the following. These are the 5 things you need to know before getting into exercise.
1) SMART GOALs
Let’s just admit that human’s often see Netflix and chill to be more appealing than a run up Jacob’s ladder. Setting up goals, especially the SMART ones, increases your chance of success.
SMART is the acronym of:
S- Specific (What is your plan? How?)
M- Measurable
A- Attainable (Do not overcommit; Be realistic)
R- Relevant (Align your small goals with your main objective)
T- Time-based (What is the reasonable time-frame to see changes?)
Examples:
-I want to get into shape by losing 2 kilograms in 3 months. I am going to the gym 4 times/week, including 2 weight-training days & 2 cardio days ✓
-Lose weight in 2020 ✘
2) Do not get hot-headed
It is not uncommon to get hot-headed when you first started exercising. However, your body needs time to accommodate to the training intensity, a sudden increase in training load set you up for musculoskeletal injuries. Muscle strains and tendinopathies are common conditions associated with training load error. Here is a simple method on how to progress your training safely:
The A:C Ratio (A- Acute, C- Chronic)
The A:C Ratio is a simple, yet effective measurement. It suggests that your training load of the week: average weekly workload of the previous 4 weeks should be in the 0.8- 1.3 ratio.1

Adapted from: Windt J, Gabbett TJHow do training and competition workloads relate to injury? The workload—injury aetiology model.British Journal of Sports Medicine 2017;51:428-435.
1) Calculate your training load of each session
-After each exercise training session, ask yourself ‘how intense did that session feel?’ Pick a number from 0 to 10 as indicated on the Borg’s scale. The scale is developed to quantify your training intensity. Then multiply the number with the duration in minutes.
E.g. I ran for 30 mins at moderate intensity (3/10).
My training load of the day: 30 x 3= 90

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