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Get started on your fitness journey with this beginner's guide to a 90-Day Plan inspired by Joe Wicks, The Body Coach.
A Beginner’s Guide To The 90 Day Plan
It’s natural to be hesitant if exercise is new to you, and if you feel unfit.
If you become more active gradually, and you start gentle exercise the muscles and joints will become stronger and you will get fitter and leaner.
Stretches prepare your body, soften up the muscles and the joints, for whatever you are doing during the day. Cardio, gets the heart pumping and helps reduce all kinds of illnesses. Weight training will lean you up and lubricate your joints.
According to a medical journal, “Short-term HIIT training increases aerobic and metabolic fitness in men with class II and III obesity.”
Exercise training is an effective strategy for improving insulin sensitivity and reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) has been shown to rapidly induce adaptations linked to improved aerobic fitness and health outcomes in sedentary individuals and those with overweight or obesity. Research has demonstrated that just 2-4 weeks of HIIT can be a sufficient stimulus to increase maximal oxygen uptake in women and men with overweight.
Rondel King, MS, CSCS, an exercise physiologist at NYU Langone’s Sports Performance Center, recommends high-intensity interval training (HIIT) for fat loss because it provides a hormonal response that promotes muscle growth and is more anabolic. HIIT also increases precursors to testosterone and growth hormone, which can help increase lean muscle mass. In addition to HIIT, Rondel emphasizes the importance of strength training to lose body fat and build muscle. Compound exercises are particularly effective because they require more energy to perform and burn more calories and fat.
I’m doing 15 workout videos from ‘The 90 Day Plan’ with Joe Wicks – ‘The Body Coach’.
Here you will find modified moves to suit Beginners, Intermediate and Seniors and all you who would like to follow a fitness plan but believe you can’t. I recommend you chose one move that you jump to, the rest move without jumping to save the knees if you are starting out exercising.
You might like the 90-day plan’, but The Body Coach’s moves and his energetic style makes you self-conscious and before you have even started you believe you can’t do it.
Do you think that you can’t exercise because you are too unfit? too fat? too old, too this and too that to be able to follow any workout? but you still keep on dreaming about doing it, one day, in the future?
Well, I’m here to ask you: How would you feel about starting to change that thought right now? And to change your life around when you are at home anyway?
Let’s stop dreaming and let’s take this time at home to do ‘The Body Coach’ 90-day plan!
As soon as Cycle 1 is done I will share the videos here!
In the 90 day plan with ‘The Body Coach’, there are 5 exercises in each cycle. Each Cycle is 30 days / 4 weeks.
Joe Wicks, ‘The Body Coach’, recommends that you workout 4-5 times/ week. Each workout is 25 minutes each.
I will start with Cycle 1 and do all 5 exercises. You can then choose which video you like more and pick and mix out of the 5 exercises over Cycle 1.
After one month- when Cycle 1 is done- I will do Cycle 2 and then Cycle 3 until we have done the full 90 days. All 3 Cycles.
Each Cycle has different exercise sessions and goals.
It’s not a quick fix, to get fit again and to reduce pain, but it wouldn’t take more than a week before you feel a difference in your body with less stiffness and with less pain.
You might experience some muscle soreness some hours after the workout, called DOOMS. As you have just done some exercise and used muscles that might have been dormant for a long time.
Exercise causes microscopic damage to the muscle fibres, resulting in muscle soreness or stiffness.
I invite you to have a longer stretch session after the workout if you would get muscle soreness, and The Best Remedy for DOOMS: Have a warm bath, put in some cheap table salt, a fist load, 250 gr, and some lavender oil ( 4-8 drops) and soak for a good 20 minutes. Put some music on and relax.
The warm bath with the salt and the lavender oil, has an amazing effect on the muscles!
Just remember:
To achieve weight loss, the amount of energy expended must be greater than the amount consumed. This can be achieved by increasing calorie expenditure while decreasing calorie intake. When calorie restriction is implemented, cortisol and feelings of stress can be triggered, while exercise increases dopamine and promotes happy feelings. Therefore, exercise is necessary to boost one’s mood and mental state while reducing calorie intake for weight loss. A combination of both approaches is necessary to achieve weight loss effectively.
In reducing body fat percentage, protein is more effective than carbohydrates. Over time, calorie intake needs to be adjusted as body mass decreases and metabolic adaptation occurs. Low energy intake and minimal body fat are perceived as signs of energy deficiency, resulting in a homeostatic endocrine response that conserves energy and promotes energy intake.
In periods of extended dieting, “refeeding” has become common. This entails a brief period of overfeeding, during which caloric intake is raised slightly above maintenance levels, and the increase in caloric intake is primarily achieved by increasing carbohydrate consumption. The aim of periodic refeeding is to temporarily increase circulating leptin and stimulate the metabolic rate.
To avoid rapid weight gain following the cessation of a diet, “reverse dieting” can be recommended. This involves gradually and carefully increasing calorie intake. Ideally, such a process would eventually restore circulating hormones and metabolic rate to baseline levels while avoiding rapid weight gain.
Participating in a structured resistance training program, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions, and consuming adequate amounts of protein are critical to successful weight loss.
All the 15 Videos for Cycle 1, 2 and 3 are being made!
They will all SOON be Uploaded onto my YouTube channel and shared here!
Keep checking in!
Month 1
Month 2
Month 3
A few days ago, I posted on “The Body Coach – Official 90-Day Plan Community Group” on Facebook, and it was such a great topic. As someone who is 55+, I can completely relate to the problem. I just wanted to share how I approach it. Is that okay?
I’ve started Joe’s 90-day plan loads of times, and I usually get to cycle 2 before giving up. My knees are usually sore, my ego is bruised, and I feel like a fat lump who can’t keep up. I agree that the plan is designed for a 20-something, fit man who can jump like a rabbit and eat whatever he wants. Even though I love most of his recipes, I don’t think it’s fair to compare someone who has never been overweight to someone who has. Especially during menopause when the cravings come out of nowhere!
So, what do I do to lean up and follow his HIIT and meal plan? I started with low-impact exercises, with no jumping, and I checked out his moves. I love them because they’re easy and they “speak to me.” Then I added stretches instead of resting for 20-40 seconds between HIIT moves. I stretched for 40 seconds to 2 minutes until my breathing came down, and then I went on to the next move. I did this with different moves, put them together, and voila! My cardio and health improved significantly. It took a couple of months, but now I can do cycle 2 without jumping, and I can follow his moves and workouts without dying.
Regarding food and nutrition, if we want to do a kick-start weight loss like British Doctor Michael Mosley suggests, that’s all well and good. But I think it’s crucial to have a follow-on plan – a sustainable maintenance plan even after the 3-month cycle plan is complete. We need a plan that we can follow when we’re finished and have reached our desired weight. I now eat healthy, nutritious food, and I don’t skip any snacks or meals. I feed my body so that I have the energy to work hard and be active, both mentally and physically. When we’re in our 20s and 30s, we can still function on junk food, and we can work after two hours of partying and no sleep. But not anymore. My brain goes into a foggy, dim mood if I even think of trying that now.
So, I personally believe that eating within my maintenance calories – not losing weight and not gaining weight – is the best approach for me right now.
You might say, “But we don’t count calories here.” That’s fair enough. I’m not advising you to count calories. I’m just sharing what works for me as a 50+ woman.
I’ve realized that eating healthy – which is such a basic thing – is so important, and getting the right nutrition when you’re over 50/40 is crucial for our brain function. At least for me. And I don’t think we’re that different.
If I were to give any advice based on what I’m doing now, it would be to allow yourself to eat a healthy, well-balanced breakfast, lunch, and dinner with two healthy snacks, including plenty of greens. Did you know that green vegetables are the best – lowest in calories and highest in nutrition? I just learned that! I also believe in having some food – like a banana or something – before exercising and having some protein like ham or eggs after exercising. It’s as simple as that. But that’s just my personal opinion.
Over to you!
Since I wrote this, I have changed my mind a bit regarding a lot of things, including what and when to eat before and after the gym. However, in essence, I still agree with my thoughts from back then.
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And as always,
❤️🎈Beatrice
The Only Difference Between Who You Are and Who You Want to Be is What You DO.
Start by doing something that makes you feel successful and full of joy.
Start positive and set the day!
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