The great thing about fitness is there is an infinite number of workouts that you can perform. It can continuously be varying and always changing, so there is still a new workout to keep you interested.
However, the number of workouts and intensity of these workouts may be off-putting to you as a beginner. Luckily, Noble Clay Fitness caters to all fitness levels, and as such, some different exercises are perfect for someone who is just starting out.
While a lot of workouts require a range of equipment and are designed to be performed in a gym, there are also a vast number of mini-workouts that can be performed at home. These require little if any equipment so are perfect for a busy person who can’t always get to the gym.
Take a look at three workouts that are great for the beginner and can be performed both at home and at the gym.
Bodyweight Tabata
Tabata has been an integral part of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) for a long time and is also a staple of Noble Clay. Tabata consists of 8 rounds of 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest and is designed to promote all-out effort before giving you a short break. Tabata is great for the beginner as it introduces you to HIIT but allows you to perform the exercises to your fitness level.
Tabata Something Else is a Tabata workout consisting of pull ups, push ups, sit-ups and air squats. The clock keeps running on each exercise for a total of 16 minutes. (4 minutes per exercise)
The nature of this exercise allows it to be performed almost anywhere, as long as there is a bar or something to complete the pull-ups with. The beauty of the workout is that if you can’t do pull-ups or are unable to find a bar to perform them, you can substitute in another movement and still get a great work out. Try Jumping Jacks, or Bear Crawls, or towel pulls from a door, or run!
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Running
Anyone can run, and running can be performed anywhere there is room. To get the extra intensity associated with fitness, running intervals are introduced, and another movement is usually included to get the lungs burning and deliver the associated benefits of performing the additional exercise.
A simple workout that includes running is to complete 4 rounds of 400m coupled with 20 to 50 air squats. This workout is suitable for beginners as it sets an achievable distance and air squats are a movement everybody, for the most part, can perform. It also helps to build fitness rapidly.
As with all workouts, you can substitute and change the additional movement and repetition scheme to suit your fitness level. As you get fitter and more experienced, you can add distance and repetitions, or try a more difficult movement. This holds true to the principle of progressive overload which states that the body changes to small incremental stimuli added to it, consistently, over time. You can add reps, sets, weight, the difficulty of movement or a combination of, to achieve progressive overloading.
The 20-minute Couplet
20 min AMRAP of:
20 Walking lunges or Reverse lunges, 20 second Front Leaning Rest (FLR)
This workout is super simple on paper but quickly becomes challenging. AMRAP stands for “As many rounds/reps as possible.” So you set a clock to 20 minutes and begin working through these two exercises. Once you complete them for 1 round, you repeat for another round. Continue this until the 20 minutes have finished. Now, at first glance, you will notice 20 minutes can be a long time. It is aerobic in nature which means you need to be able to sustain. That means you will need to rest as needed to continue for the full 20 minutes. Some may only be able to do 2 or 3 rounds and some 10 plus. The focus here is to work up to the point that you feel your muscle “burn” and then rest until it subsides. Then continue chipping away at the reps. The Front Leaning Rest is the top of a pushup while remaining “hollow” and rigid in the midline of the body, and then slightly leaning forward and holding.
