Complete Beginner's First Week Workout Plan | Start Your Fitness Journey With Just 5 Minutes Daily

up you guys. Famous Ashley Grant here. Welcome

to More Movement Please, the podcast that inspires

you to move your body more. Today's episode is

for everyone who's been thinking about getting

more active but doesn't know where to start.

Maybe you haven't worked out in years. Maybe

you never really worked out at all. Maybe you're

intimidated by the gym or you're confused by

all the fitness advice out there or you've tried

it before and it just didn't stick. If that's

you, this episode, consider it to be your starting

point because we're talking about your first

week of movement. And think of it as a complete

guide for beginners. So first things first, let's

get one thing straight. You don't need to be

in shape to start moving. You don't need special

equipment. You don't need a gym membership. You

don't even need to know what you're doing. All

you need is to be willing to start. And starting,

that's the hardest part. But I'm going to make

it as simple as humanly possible for you. Because

here's the thing about being a complete beginner.

You already have an incredible advantage. And

that's that you get to build your habits from

scratch. This means that you can do it the right

way from day one. You're not trying to break

old patterns. You're creating new ones. So let's

talk about that first week. Day one, the five

minute commitment. Yeah, you heard me right.

On your first day, I just want you to commit

to five minutes. That's it. Not 30 minutes, not

an hour, just five minutes. And you might be

wondering why just five minutes? Well, because

the goal isn't to exhaust you. It's not to overwhelm

you. The goal is to prove to yourself you can

do this. And five minutes is so achievable that

you have no excuse not to do it. And I'll bet

you when you complete it, you might go longer

than five minutes. And if you do that, if you

start that five minutes, you're already winning.

You're already succeeding. What should you do

in this five minutes? Honestly, it doesn't really

matter that much. It could be something as simple

as a walk around your house, some gentle stretching.

You could put on a song that you love and just

dance to it. The point is, I want you to move

your body intentionally for just five minutes.

Just start. Day two, repeat and observe. So day

two is simple. I want you to just do another

five minutes, but this time I want you to pay

attention to how it feels. Are you sore from

that five minutes you spent yesterday? If so,

it's normal. Are you energized? That's awesome.

Or are you dreading it? You know what? That's

okay too. Just notice how you feel and do your

five minutes again anyway. This right here, this

simple five minutes, it's where you start building

a habit. You're showing up again. Consistency,

it's everything, especially in week one. On day

three, add a little variety. You might be feeling

a little more confident, and that's great. Today,

I want you to try something just a little bit

different. If you walked in the first two days,

try some stretching. If you danced, try a walk.

The goal is to start exploring different types

of movement and see which ones you enjoy. Because

fitness doesn't have to mean that you're running

on a treadmill or lifting weights. It can be

yoga, dancing, walking, biking, swimming. Anything

that gets your body moving, it's a win. All right,

let's talk about day four. This is, I guess you'd

call it a gentle movement day. Because here's

something a lot of beginners don't realize. Rest

is actually part of the process. I do what I

call active rest days. And the reason I do that

is because I know that my body does need time

to recover. And this is really crucial, especially

when you're just starting out. So on day four,

you have a choice. If you're feeling good, do

another five minutes of gentle movement. If you're

sore or you're tired, maybe take a rest day.

But I don't mean don't do anything. Maybe just

do a simple walk. Nothing really crazy. Don't

feel guilty about it. Rest is productive. And

if you do want to move but you're sore, try like

gentle yoga. or stretching. That is one of my

favorite ways to recover on those active recovery

days is stretching. I'm obsessed with stretching.

I'll put a link in the show notes with my favorite

stretch classes that I take on YouTube, and maybe

one of them will resonate with you. Whenever

you're stretching, this can actually help you

with your soreness, and it still gets your body

moving. Day five, increase things just a little.

You've been doing five minutes every day. It's

feeling easy. Today, I want you to bump it up

to 10 minutes. And notice I didn't say get crazy

and triple or quadruple it. We're increasing

things gradually. And if five minutes still feels

challenging, it's fine. Stick with five. There's

no rush. The only person that you're competing

with is yourself from yesterday. On day six,

I want you to celebrate. I want you to celebrate

every single milestone you get to in your fitness

journey. I'm obsessive about this. I love celebrating

these milestones that I'm having. I celebrated

on day 50. I celebrated on day 100. I celebrated

when I got to 200 workouts. I'm going to celebrate

again whenever I get to 300 workouts. It's so

important to celebrate because you're telling

your body, hey, I'm doing something awesome and

I'm so proud of myself. Maybe tell a friend about

what you've accomplished. Or you could do what

I'm doing and post about it every day online.

And treat yourself to something nice. Acknowledge

that you're doing something really difficult

and you're showing up for yourself. But you still

got to move today. Yep, even if it's just another

five minutes. In fact, especially if it's just

another five minutes, I want you to make sure

you're moving today. On day seven, I want you

to start reflecting and planning. Do your movement

session of five minutes at the very least, and

then take some time to reflect on what happened

this week. What did you enjoy about the week?

What was harder than you expected? What felt

good? And what do you want to try next week?

This reflection is important because it's going

to start helping you figure out what's working

for you, what you actually enjoy. Maybe you discovered

you're enjoying walks, or maybe you realized

that stretching is what makes you feel the most

amazing right now. Or perhaps it's that you enjoy

dancing so much in your living room that it's

just the best thing ever. Use the information

that you've gathered in week one to start planning

week two. And yes, there better be a week two

and then a week three and beyond. It's kind of

like what Rhonda said in our fitness interview

series. I'll leave a link to that in the show

notes as well. She said in that that 21 days

is what you need to build a habit. So I want

you to go a minimum of three weeks and really

build this habit into your daily life. Now let's

talk about some common beginner mistakes that

I want you to avoid. Number one, doing too much

too soon. Now look, I'm completely guilty of

this because I jumped in like full throttle.

I fully recognize this. At the same time though,

I had been moving a little bit for a little while.

I had been trying to implement workouts into

my life for about a year and a half before I

went really nuts. But I really enjoyed it, so

I went for it. And I see this all the time. People

get so excited, they go from zero to working

out an hour every day and they burn out or they

get injured within less than a week. Don't be

that person. Start small, but do build as gradually

as you can and as soon as you can. Mistake number

two is comparing yourself to others. Someone

else's week one might look totally different

from yours and that's okay. The only comparison

that matters is you versus you from the past.

And mistake number three is waiting for motivation.

Stop it. Don't wait until you feel motivated

because motivation, it's unreliable. You're not

gonna always feel like moving. I don't, but I

do it anyway and you should too. That's called

discipline and it's what builds habits. And finally,

mistake number four is that all or nothing thinking.

You think if you miss a day, you failed. Well,

you know what? If you miss a day, you didn't

fail as long as you get back to it the next day

because progress isn't linear. So here's what

I want you to remember from this. Every single

person who's fit now was once a beginner. Every

athlete, every person that regularly goes to

the gym, every fitness influencer, they all started

from zero. And you can too. Your first week,

it doesn't have to be perfect, but it has to

happen if you want to actually show up for yourself

and begin your fitness journey. Move your body,

even if it's just five minutes. Prove to yourself

you can do this because let me tell you, you

can. And remember. I believe in you and I think