Stay in Shape
Getting Started With Your Fitness Program
Are you thinking about starting a fitness program to improve your overall health and shed a few extra pounds? Good for you! Here are some excellent tips for getting started with your fitness program.
Starting a fitness program is the best thing you can do for your overall health and as soon as you have your Doctor’s okay you can get right into all that physical activity which can help reduce chronic disease as well as improve your balance and your coordination.
Start by assessing your current fitness level. You probably have at least a rough idea of just how fit you are. You need a baseline to start with so your fitness scores can be compared for gain. You should record your pulse rate before and after you complete your mile walk, how long it takes you to walk that mile, how many pushups you did at one time, your body’s mass index or BMI, and the circumference of your waist. Once you have this information recorded your fitness program is ready to go.
Next you need to design your own personal fitness program. Start by determining your fitness goals so what it is you want to accomplish – lose weight, improve your cardio function, or perhaps run a marathon. Think about what it is you like or dislike when it comes to exercise and activities. Plan to start light and then build as your ability gets better. That’s the best way to avoid injury and do remember to spice it up a bit so that your workouts have lot of variety so you won’t get bored.
Now you need to assemble any exercise equipment you have purchased for your fitness program. Perhaps you purchased one of those all in one machines, or maybe it was just a treadmill. At any rate you will want to get it all assembled so that you can start your workouts and be on your way to a healthier you.
Once you are ready to get started you will need to start slow and gradually be build up. Make sure your warm up is adequate so that everything becomes easy. Depending on where you are will depend on what type of exercises you incorporate into your workout and for how long you workout will be. That’s what your personal fitness program is all about.
It’s best to break things up if you need to. Remember shorter more frequent sessions also work very well and it is much easier to fit 10 minutes of exercise into your busy day than it is 30 minutes. That 10 minutes means 3 short and quick sessions. It’s that easy to get your fitness program into your busy day.
Try to be creative with your workouts because you are much more likely to stay at it when your program is interesting and not boring. It’s hard to stay enthusiastic about the same exercises in your fitness program when you have to do them day in and day out.
Make sure that you are listening to your body. Shortness of breath, dizziness, or nausea means you need to take a break from your fitness program immediately. If you have pain in an area reduce the amount of exercise for a bit to give it a change to heal.
It is very important to monitor your progress because otherwise you have no way of knowing if your fitness program is working for you. You also don’t know when you should make things easier or harder.
Now that you’ve created your own personal fitness program you have no excuse to get busy.
Steve Johnson
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/getting-started-with-your-fitness-program-133656.html
July 6, 2009 - 8:45 pm
How to get started on a fitness program?
I am a 69 year old man, about 30 lbs overweight and just not fit! I recently joined a state of the art health club. I’m looking for ideas on how to start and how to keep motivated. The staff is good, but they just go through their standard tour and then turn you loose. Anyone out there in my predicament that has had success?
July 7, 2009 - 1:47 am
k
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July 7, 2009 - 1:49 am
i joined the gym 3 months ago and i say it is hard to keep motivated but everytime i just think of my goals and work at it
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July 7, 2009 - 1:51 am
Go to mixed yoga classes instead. It is less heavy impact on you and it distresses too. Your mind may wander to the lovely young ladies there which will keep your heart racing
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July 7, 2009 - 1:53 am
how about put the gym on hold for a bit and do lots of walking instead to start off with? this will build up your stamina and confidence before you go into unknown territory! you could even get someone you know to be a walking partner?
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July 7, 2009 - 1:55 am
Ooh, where should I begin?!!
I’m almost 62 and have been going to the gym regularly for almost 2 years now. I see and traim with other 60-70 year olds daily.
I can really tell you a lot because I’ve learned a lot. First of all, since the trainers are rarely even close to 60 they aren’t very much help for us. You mostly have to try and see what works for you.
You are faced with not just building muscle but also with strengthening your joints, where you can, and attachments, tendons, ligaments, etc. And that takes time, but the good news is that they do get stronger. Today, for instance I can do four sets of 8 pullups, couldn’t do three pu’s six months ago.
The most important thing: KEEP INTERESTED!
Forget "goals", most of us can’t see beyond Tuesday: Instead, learn how to enjoy doing each excersize.
For me that ment training arms and shoulders because that’s what kept my interest. Screw the cardio crap: Stairclimbers, treadmills, aerobics classes, they just weren’t the priority for me. I do some of that now but only after having worked up to it. And its more like fun now than the boredom it used to be.
I started out doing full body workouts but that left me feeling nausious and would keep me out for a week. Then I started breaking my workouts down into bodyparts, and that gets me in five times a week, for over a year now.
I started on arms, then added shoulders. Months later, over time, I worked in torso, abs and back, and chest, and back, then started on the three legs areas, as I got stronger, always working around the arthritic areas of my joints and tendonitis.
Basically, there are two kinds of pain: Pain you work around, and pain that you work through. You have to be smart enough to know which is which. Joint pain is bad, so be careful with your joints. But usually you can find ways to work the muscle by angling the joint a little differently. You have to discover what works for you.
I suggest that maybe you start something similiar, do your shoulders, abs and hammies, biceps, chest and quads, triceps and back, forearms and calves and abs on different days.
Don’t try to do everything in the beginning and realize that your joints will get stronger over time so that in a year you’ll be able to do exercises that you can’t do today.
I do a light weight, high reps set first, these get the synovial fluids, lymph, and blood going in my joints and make the next heavier, lower rep, sets actually easier than the first. So I might start tri pulldowns with 16 moderate weight reps then increase the weight and do 12, then increase for 8…etc. Its that first high rep set that sets the stage for my later, heavier, muscle building sets. You be surprized how heavey you can go when you’ve prepped your joints by the warm up set. I then try to do four or even more sets per exercise, usually upping the weight each set.
Cable machines are easier on joints than either bars or dumbbells so work as much with cables as possible. Usually you can go heavier with them since you don’t have to get them into the exercise position.
For instance, I do not bench (even though I love bench pressing) because there are other, less destructive, ways of building tris, shoulders, and chest. We’re not 20 anymore so we can’t do a lot of the things we once did.
Define your own routine and stay with it, your own routines will likely be better than what some 30- or 40-something trainer suggests. But most important, do the things that maintain your interest!
I’ld love to give you my full weeks regime but it would take quite a bit. Go in Day 1 and just work your biceps for a hour, trying different exercises, then on Day 2 just do our tris. Or something like that, pick your favorite part. And ask questions and talk to other people.
Just keep at it and remember to do what keeps you interested. My blood pressure is way down and my weight is a little down, and I have the frame of a much younger man today, much younger than I was just two years ago. It’s never too late.
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July 7, 2009 - 1:57 am
Always think about your goals and try to visualize how you wanna look or how fit you wanna be. It is just natural human laziness that keeps you unmotivated and in the back.
I prefer getting fit without any strong guys around me.. I just make it in my speed. I’m an athlete and I use several home programs to practice even form your household. All you need is knowledge and motivation.
In my source is a site where I gained a lot of useful information. Get fit, strong, whatever I want it is there.
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http://www.loseweighttruth.com
July 7, 2009 - 1:59 am
Try the Lil Jack workout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKCGe2Ezris
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