How to Start Working Out When You're Completely Out of Shape

Start with the basics: pushups and bodyweight rows, light kettlebell swings, and light two-hand club circles and pullovers. Indian clubs are worth having for mobility and they make a great warm-up. Don't make weight loss your first goal. Pick a number of days a week you can actually stick with, and pay attention every rep, because you're learning to move in ways you never have. After a couple of months of regular training, you're ready for a real club or kettlebell progression.

Should you lose weight before you start?

No, for most people.

Weight loss is largely about how much you eat compared to how much you burn. And weight loss isn't an indicator of being healthy, which should be the actual goal. You can build a strong and robust body while still carrying a layer of fat on top. You can lose that later with diet. It shouldn't be your main concern going in.

The exception is someone so heavy that the weight itself is an impediment on the joints for the activities they want to do. For that person, losing weight comes first. For everyone else, train now.

Why these movements?

Think about how you move in a three-dimensional world. You've got six directions available to you: up and down, forward and back, and rotating one way or the other.

Swings and squats work up and down. Pushups and rows work forward and back. Inside and outside circles work the rotation, the transverse plane, which most gym programs skip entirely. A beginner who trains all of them learns to generate force in every direction their body can move.

That's the whole logic of the starting kit. Every piece covers a direction the others don't.

How many days a week?

Pick a number of days you can stick with.

There's no magic number for a beginner. Moving your body well is a skill, and skills are learned the same way every time: with time. Two days a week kept for six months beats five days a week kept for three.

The mistake that gets beginners hurt

Not paying attention.

People get hurt when they try these movements on autopilot. They're new ways of moving, things your body has never done before, and that means you have to pay attention to what you're doing. You can't train with a blank, wandering mind.

Treat every session like you're investigating how to do something new, because you are. Watch where the weight goes. Notice what your body is doing. The rep you were present for teaches you something. The rep you zoned out on is the one that hurts you.

When are you ready for real clubs or kettlebells?

When you feel confident in the movements. For most people that's a couple of months of getting used to them, assuming you trained regularly.

At that point you can start exploring a real progression. The first kettlebell guide covers sizing, and if you're curious why anyone would choose a club over a dumbbell, this guide is the case for it.

Doing the arithmetic

None of this needs special equipment or an app. Pick your days, show up, and write down what you did. Over a couple of months that log becomes the proof that you're ready for more. Perside just keeps the log for you, and never forgets or rounds in your favor.

Your first session

If you have Indian clubs, warm up with them: 3 to 5 minutes of light, easy circles to get your shoulders moving. If you don't, 2 minutes of slow arm circles and a few practice hinges.

Then the session, same every time:

Pushups, 5 sets of 5. If 5 clean floor pushups aren't there yet, put your hands on a bench or counter and do them from there.

Bodyweight rows, 5 sets of 5. Under a sturdy table or a bar; walk your feet in to make them easier, out to make them harder.

Two-hand kettlebell swings, 5 sets of 5, one bell. Full stop and reset between sets. If you've never trained, that bell is 12kg (26lb) for most men and 8kg (18lb) for most women.

Two-hand club circles, inside then outside, 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off, 5 sets total. A 10 to 15 pound club.

Two-hand club pullovers, same club, 30 on and 30 off, 5 sets total.

Rest as long as you want between sets. The whole thing is about 30 minutes on day one, and closer to an hour by the time you reach 10 sets.

The one rule inside every set: stop while the movement still looks and feels clean. A set cut short is correct. A rep you had to fight through is the one you'll pay for.

Run it 2 or 3 days a week, never back to back at first. Each training week, add 1 set to each movement, as long as every rep last week looked like the first one. If a session got ugly, repeat last week's numbers instead.

When you're at 10 sets across the board, 50 pushups, 50 rows, 50 swings, and 10 minutes each of circles and pullovers, all of it clean, you're ready for a real progression. For most people that's a couple of months.

Pay attention the whole way through. Next session, do it again.

Perside programs volume, density, and timed cycles for clubs, maces, and kettlebells. See the full progression at The Path, or size your first implement at getperside.com/learn/start.