When getting started with fitness, should a novice do aerobic or anaerobic exercise first?

Should a novice do aerobic or anaerobic exercise first when getting started with fitness? The answer is that there is no absolute priority. It all depends on your fitness goals, physical foundation, and consistent exercise habits. You can go downstairs and walk twice if you struggle with this problem.

In fact, the fitness circle has been arguing about this issue for almost ten years. Both schools of thought have their own merits, and there is absolutely no need to take sides. One group focuses on "novices should first build up aerobic basics". Most of them are practitioners who provide mass fitness guidance and sports rehabilitation. Their logic is also very practical: most novices can even climb the third floor without gasping for breath. Their cardiopulmonary ability is so poor that it takes three minutes to do a set of dumbbell presses. Not to mention deformed movements, they are also prone to injury. ； Moreover, the aerobic threshold is very low. You can go out for a walk just wearing sneakers. After practicing, you will immediately lose 20 pounds. The positive feedback comes quickly. It is very suitable for establishing exercise habits for people with zero foundation. I have seen too many novices who have applied for an annual membership. On the first day, they were pulled by their friends to do hip and leg exercises. On the first day, they were so painful that they could not get out of bed.

The other school of thought that "novices should first seize the anaerobic bonus" is not groundless. Most practitioners in the fields of bodybuilding and powerlifting recommend this path. The first half year of strength training for novices is the "novice welfare period". The muscle growth rate is two to three times that of veterans. First, pile up the muscle mass and increase the basal metabolism. Even if you can't control your mouth later, you will not gain weight easily. The resulting figure will be firm, not dry and thin. I fell into a trap when I first started working out. I ran five kilometers every day with my roommate. After running for a month, I lost ten kilograms and my face became slumped. I stopped running for half a month and immediately gained weight. Later, I switched to strength training. My weight has not changed much in three months. My jeans have gone from size 28 to size 26, and my waist has become a lot tighter. This is indeed a real long-term benefit.

If you really have to choose, you don't have to follow other people's strategies, just figure it out yourself according to the situation. If your body fat rate exceeds 30% and you can't even endure continuous exercise for 10 minutes, and you want to get off the scale quickly to gain some confidence, you can start with low-intensity aerobic exercise such as brisk walking, elliptical machines, and swimming. Don't just start with deadlifts and squats. Not only will you injure your joints, but you will lose your confidence even more. If you have a foundation in running and jumping, have a normal or even thin weight, and want a waistcoat line and right-angled shoulders, then there is no problem in learning strength movements directly. Just don’t stare at the scale in the first two months. Muscle is much heavier than fat, and the smaller the circumference is, the more you will become thinner.

Of course, there are many exceptions. For example, if you are overweight and have bad knees, it will hurt when you run or jump. Even if you want to lose fat, you can first practice strength training with fixed equipment in a sitting position, which puts less pressure on the joints than walking. There is no need to completely separate aerobic and anaerobic. Now I often do 20 minutes of leisurely pedaling on the elliptical machine after 40 minutes of strength training. I don’t lose much muscle, and I can also gain some body fat. Novices can also use this combination. There is no need to choose one to be strict.

Damn, to put it bluntly, fitness is similar to learning to cook. If you don’t have the basics, you can practice cooking instant noodles and scrambled eggs first. If you have the basics, you can directly learn to cook hard dishes. No one will stop you. Rather than worrying about whether to do aerobic or anaerobic exercise first, the best way to get started is if you are willing to move three or four times a week for more than three months. If you really don’t understand, if you put on your sneakers and walk downstairs for half an hour after get off work today, you’re officially a beginner, but there’s no need to pay so much attention to it.