novice cycle c: Form Follows Function
(third month)
introduction to this cycle:
Form Follows Function
You have prepared your body and mind, you have increased your muscular and cardiovascular endurance, you have gained flexibility and have hopefully gotten a little bit better with that balance. Now it is time to move you up in the Wonderful World of Wellness. The additional use of tools in this cycle will help you learn proper form while you build strength.
Learning the proper form this way will help you understand your own movement patterns and how to incorporate weights into your fitness routine. This will be especially helpful if you are wanting to join a gym, attend group fitness classes, or purchase your own equipment.
With that being said: YOU DO NOT NEED a gym or a lot of “fancy” equipment to live a healthy lifestyle. It all depends on what your goals are, what you feel comfortable with, and how far you want to push yourself. If you are wanting to lose weight, tone what you have, or increase strength, the suggested minimal equipment will assist you. If you decide to not purchase the equipment, please contact me so we can discuss further options available to you, so you can elicit the physiological response that we are trying to achieve within this cycle and still achieve your goals.
You did it, you’re here, you made it to the last cycle of fitness in your Fitness for the Novice Program!
You have been consistently exercising for 8 weeks or more by now. How do you feel?! What have you noticed? You should definitely feel more aligned with your body by now. At the beginning of this course, you may have felt out of control a little bit during some of the balance or flexibility exercises. You learned how your body responds to moving it in space, how it reacts to higher repetitions, and now it’s time to really harness everything we previously learned to CONTROL our movement and our body while in motion with resistance bands, or while holding yoga poses longer than what seemed possible only a few weeks before.
In this cycle, it is going to be very important for you to focus on your form. I know I say that all of the time, but this is where we are building our foundational understanding of our body and how we move under tension or while carrying a load. We need to learn now how to properly do all of these exercises so we can control our movements and build on what we do today, tomorrow.
Since form is so critical in this cycle, Form Follows Function, I suggest you try to do these exercises in front of a mirror, or turn your phone’s camera on yourself so you can see what your body is up to in space. It’s amazing that what we THINK our body is doing can be completely different from what it is ACTUALLY doing.
We are going slow in the beginning here to make sure we set you up from prolonged success. We are building the foundation of your fitness, with these tools you will be able to keep building, keep pushing yourself, and you will know that you are doing those new fun activities correctly. Take the time now to be patient with yourself as you perfect the exercises. If you find that you can’t follow the prescribed repetitions with perfect form, then you should stop when your form falls South. Quality over quantity, this will help you train your body the correct way, mitigating risk of injury and making you stronger both physically and mentally. There’s nothing wrong with repeating a week or two if need be to really comprehend the material before moving on to the next week’s prescribed repetitions or tempo.
At the end of this cycle, you will do your next Progress Day! Once you complete it, take a look back at how far you've come in such little time. I know that you have had good days, great days, and some of them have been rough too, but you did it! You are at the beginning of the end for this Level of fitness, make it count, work hard, and keep pushing yourself. I know you can do it!
Items to go over before starting your program:
Resistance Bands are encouraged but not absolutely necessary. If you do not have these or do not wish to purchase them, please contact us at Hello@naturalfitness704.com
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.