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Why online fitness routines don’t work for beginners

Illustration of people working out and being tired in front of a screen that says online gym
Design: Kazi Akib Bin Asad

Nowadays, working out doesn't necessarily require spending money on a trainer or joining a gym. People have easy access to online fitness content, most of which is free of cost. Following online fitness routines gained a lot of popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic, as people were stuck at home. However, not all of them could keep up with these fitness routines, especially beginners because, hard as it may be to believe it, there is a lack of beginner friendly workout content on the Internet.

The first problem with these fitness contents is that there is rarely any heads up for beginners who have zero experience in how exercise works. It is necessary that a person who has just started working out take it slow so that there is enough time for the body to get used to the routine and the tiredness that comes with it. As most online fitness content is created by focusing on how to help people get into shape as fast as possible to get "quick results", the exercise shown there is often difficult to keep up with. Sometimes there aren't even clear instructions about what one may experience after starting the fitness sessions. Which is why beginners get fatigued by doing all the heavy workout and it frustrates them easily.

There are also many videos that don't even include warming up as an activity in their exercise schedule. When a person who has never worked out tries heavy exercises without warming up, they can easily experience muscle pulls or injure themselves as their bodies aren't flexible yet. Without activities like stretching, walking or doing light exercises, trying out a whole 30 or 40-minute workout session becomes extremely unsafe.

Not everyone can lose weight or get into shape by working out. There might be a handful of underlying reasons behind one's weight gain. Besides health conditions, proper diet should come in discussion by default as getting into shape requires not only working out, but also leading a healthy balanced life. With much of this badly done fitness content on the Internet, they provide poor results for the users and as a result, people struggle to figure out what went wrong with their fitness journey even though they tried their hardest.

The lack of information and poor customisation of workout routines for people of all body types are another reason why these routines don't end up being effective for many beginners. Ill-suited workout routines are also responsible for the frustration over not getting effective results from working out, and that ends up discouraging people. It's essential for everyone to know about their own body, the workouts they can handle, the precautions for those routines and how the results may differ from person to person. It's time online fitness routines started saying these things.

Nadeemah always wraps her head around the thought of what she's going to eat next and thinks that the glass at her bedside table is half- full. Say hi at: nadeemahafrose13@gmail.com

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Why online fitness routines don’t work for beginners

Illustration of people working out and being tired in front of a screen that says online gym
Design: Kazi Akib Bin Asad

Nowadays, working out doesn't necessarily require spending money on a trainer or joining a gym. People have easy access to online fitness content, most of which is free of cost. Following online fitness routines gained a lot of popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic, as people were stuck at home. However, not all of them could keep up with these fitness routines, especially beginners because, hard as it may be to believe it, there is a lack of beginner friendly workout content on the Internet.

The first problem with these fitness contents is that there is rarely any heads up for beginners who have zero experience in how exercise works. It is necessary that a person who has just started working out take it slow so that there is enough time for the body to get used to the routine and the tiredness that comes with it. As most online fitness content is created by focusing on how to help people get into shape as fast as possible to get "quick results", the exercise shown there is often difficult to keep up with. Sometimes there aren't even clear instructions about what one may experience after starting the fitness sessions. Which is why beginners get fatigued by doing all the heavy workout and it frustrates them easily.

There are also many videos that don't even include warming up as an activity in their exercise schedule. When a person who has never worked out tries heavy exercises without warming up, they can easily experience muscle pulls or injure themselves as their bodies aren't flexible yet. Without activities like stretching, walking or doing light exercises, trying out a whole 30 or 40-minute workout session becomes extremely unsafe.

Not everyone can lose weight or get into shape by working out. There might be a handful of underlying reasons behind one's weight gain. Besides health conditions, proper diet should come in discussion by default as getting into shape requires not only working out, but also leading a healthy balanced life. With much of this badly done fitness content on the Internet, they provide poor results for the users and as a result, people struggle to figure out what went wrong with their fitness journey even though they tried their hardest.

The lack of information and poor customisation of workout routines for people of all body types are another reason why these routines don't end up being effective for many beginners. Ill-suited workout routines are also responsible for the frustration over not getting effective results from working out, and that ends up discouraging people. It's essential for everyone to know about their own body, the workouts they can handle, the precautions for those routines and how the results may differ from person to person. It's time online fitness routines started saying these things.

Nadeemah always wraps her head around the thought of what she's going to eat next and thinks that the glass at her bedside table is half- full. Say hi at: nadeemahafrose13@gmail.com

Comments