beginner cycle b: body awareness
(second month)
introduction to this cycle:
body awareness
Welcome to Level 1 Fitness for Beginners, Cycle B
Cycle A was fun, wasn’t it?! You got to see how your body responds to different stimuluses including flexibility, balance, cardiovascular stimulus, resistance training, and working on your overall endurance. Now that you familiarized yourself with yourself, it’s time to become more aware.
In Cycle B, we are going to build on what we learned in the first cycle, except during these next four weeks, you will be focusing on what happens to your body when you move about in space. You won’t be doing anything too wild just yet, but this is going to be more intense than the first 4 weeks.
If you felt like the last week of Cycle A was REALLY challenging, make sure you repeat the last week again before starting with the first week of Cycle B.
You will be stepping out, bending those knees more and a little deeper, as well as trying to push your endurance a bit further. In this Cycle, please make sure you take notes on any exercise you have questions about so you can use the tools at your disposal to navigate the answer, or you can refer to it as you contact us.
If you notice you have a lot of joint pain with this Cycle, make sure you don’t skip out on the stretches at the end. If that doesn’t seem to help, reach out to the Natural Fitness community on tips to prevent soreness. A little soreness is common, and actually encouraged, but pain is not.
I say it a lot in my videos, to my physical clients, really to anyone who will listen. Our bodies are amazing and they are capable so much, we just have to train them. You are here, you are at the beginning of your fitness journey and you are starting Week 5! I am so proud of you and your commitment to yourself. Keep focusing on your goals, refer to those inspirational emails, and keep at it! These 4 weeks will fly by and you will be starting the third and final Cycle to your First Level of Fitness in no time!
Items to go over before starting your program
Annotations in Worksheets:
FB = Follow breath
ES= Each side, we will be doing a lot on one side of the body and then the other. Sometimes alternating, and sometimes completing one side before moving to the other.
AFAP= As fast as possible, but REMEMBER only go as fast as you can keep the form in check
EW= Each way, some movements require a front/back or side/side motion. It will make sense in the videos, but it is something to note while looking at the excel sheets
Numbers, EX: 2010 or 4321= Think of each digit as an individual part of the exercise. The first digit is going into the exercise, the second if there is a hold, the third is getting out of the exercise, and the fourth is if there is a hold before your next repetition. Using 4321 as an example, think about a pushup, the 4 would be how many seconds you are going down, the 3 would be holding the pushup in the “push” position, the 2 would be how long it takes for you to push back up, and then the 1 would be holding for one second at the top before starting the movement again. If the digit is a “0” that means there is no hold/pause, and you will continue the movement.
Reps= Repetitions, or how many times you will be doing an exercise
Sets= the number of times you will do the group of exercises. Most of the time there will be 3 sets. If you are not able to get through all three sets of all the prescribed exercises.
a/b/c = this is the grouping of exercises. For example, you would do all “a” exercises for the prescribed amount and then you would start back at the top of the “a’s” and complete the number of sets listed before moving onto the next group. If they are all “a” this is a circuit workout. You will start with the first exercise on the sheet, go through all of them, and then start back up at the top.