To help reach your fitness goals, here are three major exercise groups – aerobic exercise, strength training, stretching – which we’ll discuss to help you decide which to use in your fitness program.

Aerobic Exercise

Fitness Goals Include Aerobic Exercising

Aerobic exercises are beneficial whether you’re young or old. It’s a type of fitness training involving the movement of your body’s large muscle groups. It increases your heart rate, breathing rate, blood circulation, thus maximizing the oxygen in your blood. It helps release endorphins, a chemical which give you a natural high.

• Examples of aerobic exercises include dancing, cycling, running, jogging, walking or any sport that includes moving major muscle groups that raise heart rate.

• Using aerobic exercises in your fitness plan coupled with a proper diet keeps flabs away. It increases stamina and strengthens the immune system, making you less prone to illnesses. It’s also proven to reduce risks associated with obesity, heart disease, and type-2 diabetes.
• Though aerobic activity is safe, you must first get an OK from your doctor especially if you have chronic injuries or medical condition before adding it to your fitness program. Starting aerobic exercises may be hard at first but you’ll surely gradually improve.

Weight/Resistance Training

If you aim to lose fat or improve your body, use weight training in your fitness program. Weight training is not about building massive muscles, but rather changing how your body looks and increasing core body strength. It raises your metabolism and builds muscle, which burns more calories. It strengthens bones, increases strength and endurance and helps you avoid injuries. Plus being fit and ripped makes you feel better about yourself.

• However, as a fitness program, weight training can be confusing, especially with the multitude of exercises, equipment, and methods available. To avoid this, try joining a gym or hire a personal trainer to guide you for the first few weeks.
• Alternatively, find a friend who does weights or purchase guidebooks and basic equipment. However, don’t exercise alone; make sure there’s someone with you in case of injuries.

Stretching

Stretching is essential to every fitness program. Some believe it is a form of exercise on its own, but most use stretching as a part of an Aerobic or weight training routine. Stretching is important as it increases flexibility and reduces chances of injury. Stretching is done when a muscle or muscle group is stretched and given tension slowly and cautiously and maintaining that posture for several seconds. Stretching helps to lengthen the muscles and tendons thus giving you greater range of movement and flexibility reducing your chance of injury.

Stretching should be done before and after exercising. You should warming up, stretch, exercise (aerobic or strength-training), cool down, and then stretch.

Now that you understand the basic principles of these exercises, you can choose which one suits your fitness plan best. It’s ideal to incorporate a little bit of everything from each. If you can’t, at the very least try aerobic exercise with stretching or strength training with stretching, and you’ll have yourself a complete fitness program. Click Here to take survey

Related Posts:

1. Fitness Goals: The Fun Fitness Program Questionnaire
2. Reaching Your Fitness Goals, One Victory at a Time
3. The First Step to Fitness: Defining Your Fitness Goals

Continuing with our series, which started with fitness goals followed by how to set fitness goals, this fitness program questionnaire is designed to help you develop a fitness plan.

• But first, you need to get a fitness assessment test. A fitness assessment is a series of tests that determine your health and physical fitness. It also checks for medical conditions, lingering injuries or recent surgeries detrimental to your fitness training and to help you choose your fitness training options.
  

  Fitness goals

• Checking your fitness is something no questionnaire in the world can do reliably, so get it done or plan to get it at the nearest hospital or gym under the supervision of a certified fitness/health expert.

Assuming that you’ve already had your test, you need to develop your fitness program. Here are some fundamental questions to guide you in planning your fitness program. Make sure you answer them truthfully. Knowing what you want to happen in your fitness plan is important to your success.

What type of fitness workout do you do?

1. ___ I regularly exercise/play sports or participate in recreational activities.

2. ___ I occasionally exercise/play sports with friends, walk for pleasure, and use stairs.

3. ___ Does channel surfing qualify?

1. Continue this but make sure it is in line with your fitness test results.

2. Try and make it more regular in order to maximize your fitness.

3. Plan to start slow starting with cardio, then moving towards more demanding exercises.

What is your budget?

1. ___ I am willing to spend to get to my goal.

2. ___ I have money tucked away, but would rather not spend it all, thank you.

3. ___ I’m broke.

1.        Use your budget to add targeted or fun activities. You may also want to join a gym.

2.        Find a gym that is affordable, preferably pay-per-visit gyms. Do more outdoor activities.

3.        Find outdoor activities that suit you, and try exercising from home.

What is my ideal fitness training environment?

1. ___ I love the outdoors. The fresh air and wind in my face inspire me.

2. ___ I love the smell of the gym, it makes me work harder.

3. ___ I’d rather stay home.

1.        Focus outdoor activities such as jogging through parks, outdoor sports, hiking, cycling etc.

2.        Join a gym! You can mix up your routine and do outdoor activities every once in a while.

3.        Invest in home exercise equipment (stair climber, stationary bike, treadmill) or do aerobics.

Do I go through my fitness program alone?

1. ___ I am a people person, and I would like to do fitness training with others.

2. ___ I value my private time but enjoy exercising with others too.

3. ___ Get away from me!

1.        Join a gym, a fitness class, or engage in team sports.

2.        Schedule days exercising alone, sprinkle in some days with a fitness training buddy.

3.        Find individual exercises such as jogging, martial arts, aerobics etc.

Do I need to follow a strict fitness program?

1. ___ I am fully knowledgeable/capable of developing my own fitness program.

2. ___ I need a pre-made fitness program but can improvise along the way.

3. ___ I don’t know how to exercise unless I am told what to do next. Help!

1.        Fix a plan and have your fitness expert check it for good measure.

2.        Ask for help developing your fitness plan making sure you add activities you like.

3.        Same as number two, but you might want to hire a personal trainer.

Do I need professional assistance?

1. ___ I have a firm grasp of the fundamentals of fitness and exercise.

2. ___ I know the basics of exercise but may need help sometimes.

3. ___ I don’t know the difference between a lunge and a squat.

1.        No need to get a personal trainer if you’re confident you can follow your fitness plan.

2.        Schedule a once-a-week with a personal trainer to make sure you’re doing your fitness workouts right.

3.        Hire a personal trainer to help you with your fitness workout. Go on your own when you’re confident enough.

Rank these reasons for getting on a fitness program from 1-4, one being the most important:

___ Improve cardiovascular fitness and energy level.

___ Improve appearance, lose body-fat and weight.

___ Improve performance for sports or physical activity.

___ To feel better, reduce stress, improve quality of life, overall health.

The ranking reflects what you value most so you’ll know the reasons why you’re doing this.

Hopefully, after answering those questions truthfully, you know what you are supposed to do. The next and most important step is to make up your mind that you really want to do this. As we said earlier, writing your fitness goal down helps make it more real and tangible, so…

Write down your fitness goal in the space provided below:

______________________________________________________________________________

­­­­­­­­­­­______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Write your time commitment to your fitness goal and countersign on the space provided:

I am ready, able and willing to commit:

1 day a week to exercise.   __________________

2 days a week to exercise. __________________

__ days a week to exercise. __________________

I am ready, willing, and able to commit:

1 hour on each exercise day. __________

2 hours on each exercise day. __________

__ hours on each exercise day. __________

I covenant to follow through with my fitness training with:

(Write exercise buddy’s name here à) _______________  every (insert day hereà) ____________ of the week._____________.

and with

(Write exercise buddy’s name here à) _______________  every (insert day hereà) ____________ of the week._____________.

I ____________________ make this personal commitment and covenant with myself, to pursue my fitness goal through fitness training. I realize that this is what I want, what I need, and I will work to achieve my goal, signed this ____ day of ____, year 20 __.

______________________________

Signature over Printed Name

Print this last part out, fold it and keep it in your bag or purse. Frame it and hang it on your wall. You can also hand it over to your most trusted friend. Whatever you do, do not leave it lying on your desk or anywhere it can be accidentally tossed. Good luck on reaching your fitness goal and happy exercising! Click Here to take survey

Related Tasks and Posts:

Sign up now for our 7 Day Mini Course to support your Fitness Goals. (At top right of this page.)

Read related posts on Fitness Goals, and you may want to also take the Diet Personality/Eating Personality Questions.

It’s inevitable that you will one day have to travel, whether on business or on a family holiday, but that doesn’t mean you should leave your fitness goals behind. Travel can be a great time to explore new places to workout. At the very least, you’ll experience something different in your fitness training.
If you’re staying at a hotel, chances are it has a fitness center where you can do your fitness workout routine. Most hotels now have top-of-the-line equipment and may even offer free sessions with a personal trainer or free exercise classes. Some hotels may have a pools; swimming is an excellent aerobic exercise so do not miss out on this opportunity.
If you’re staying at a motel with no gym, you can go to the nearest park for your fitness workout. Make sure you always bring a pair of running shoes. We’re lucky that we live in a time when running shoes are barely heavier than the socks we wear so there should be no problems there.
If you take your fitness plan seriously, then you should always pack a couple of pieces of fitness training equipment in your luggage.

One light and effective exercise tool would be a jumping rope. It balls up tightly and weighs next to nothing.

You can also get in some nice weight training by bringing resistance bands. They may not do exactly as well as real weights but they’ll give you a good enough fitness workout for the meantime. (Note- please read our review on Bodylastics travel items)

If you have a laptop, make sure you have your fitness workout videos in there. You can hook it up to the speakers on your hotel TV, or just being a fitness video with you and pop it in the room’s DVD player. For floor exercises, you can use the towels or sheets as your mat, but be sure to ask for replacements after (wink).
If you really can’t bring anything, or if you forget, you still have something you can use for your fitness workout: your own body.

• You can do traditional fitness training by running in place, doing jumping jacks, doing push-ups, crunches, squats, lunges and yoga. (Note to reader; if you are interested in yoga, please read our yoga series)

If you’re on a business trip, it’s best to do your planned fitness workouts in the morning. Pack your own sports bars, bring your vitamins and always keep yourself properly hydrated.
Now, say you’re going on a family vacation, it doesn’t mean you need to leave your fitness goals behind. You can still sneak in a workout or two by hiking, biking, boating or simply playing with Frisbees, or touch football. Play is also a form of fitness training you know.

• On the road, one big no-no is disregarding your fitness plan by not eating right. Remember that your diet is directly related to your fitness goals. Of course you should always try the local delicacy but do try avoiding the all-you-can-eat buffets.

With these tips, you won’t have any worries – or excuses – about your fitness goals and not getting your fitness workout done.

In Defining Your Fitness Goals, we focused on the importance of having the proper goals in order to achieve your desired fitness level. Now let’s talk about setting the goal and making it achievable.

While you may be tempted to set a goal that at once audacious and daring, you should always be realistic. Setting the bar very high is sometimes advantageous, as even if you fall short and only reach 50% of your fitness goal, it’s still quite good. That may work for some, but it won’t work for many others. The reason why many people fail to reach their fitness goals is not because of lack of trying, it’s because they get discouraged when they don’t see the developments immediately.

The first thing you need to do is to set your fitness goal to paper. There is something about writing things down that makes them more real, kind of like a contract with your self, instead of just lip service. Write it down, and then make a detailed fitness training plan with specific steps toward reaching it.

Keep your goal ‘visible’ all throughout the day. Post it on your vanity, your dresser, your cubicle or office desk, on the key holder in your house, on the dashboard of your car. Do not allow yourself any time to forget that you are heading towards a goal.

Whatever your overall fitness goal is, you need to break it down into little steps in order to make it achievable and realistic. These are what I like call “Fitness Milestones.” Each fitness milestone is a stepping-stone to your “absolute goal” or main goal.

Make sure you choose a fitness workout that is appropriate for your goal. For example, your main goal is to lose 50 lbs, you can create a fitness plan that will allow you to lose 10 lbs in a month. If you’re goal is to compete in a marathon, you can train to run 5 miles a week, adding 1 mile per week until you reach your desired miles, etc.

To keep your fitness workouts fresh, you can try enlisting the help of an exercise buddy, then switch buddies every now and again. To keep things interesting, reward yourself every time you achieve a fitness milestone. For example, get yourself a nice spa or beauty treatment after every milestone. When you reach your halfway mark, you can make your personal reward extra special. Ramping up the rewards you give yourself can make reaching a goal really enjoyable.

If you’re feeling the strain, take a load off. Taking a break for maybe a day or two won’t impact your fitness program overall, it might even be beneficial as you get to recharge your batteries.

Remember that it’s the journey that counts, and reaching your fitness goal is only the last part. There’s all that time in between that you should enjoy. Succeeding does not have to be all pain and sacrifice. Reaching your fitness goals should be challenging yet fun. Click Here to take survey

In this world of five-minute ab machines, fitness workout DVDs, and the general ‘fitness program in-a-box’ mentality, it’s often so hard to sift through what is real. Promises of getting fit using machines, drinking power shakes or slimming herbal teas have saturated the market that those interested in getting fit and healthy are simply overwhelmed. A lot of people who start with great enthusiasm quickly get jaded because of all the blatant marketing and promises of instant success.

I have nothing against fitness products from anyone, and honestly, some of them (not all) do actually work. The main problem is that people become enamored with the “promise” of fitness and not the “getting fit” part. Owning all the exercise machines ever invented may look and sound cool, but what people really need is the right motivation, the right goals, and the right fitness plan in order to succeed.

People are motivated by different things, so goals will vary from person to person. Before we get into defining your fitness goals, let’s spend a little time discussing what fitness goals are not. Losing 5 lbs is not a goal. Running 10 miles is not a goal. Doing 100 crunches on your mega-ab machine is not a goal. They’re merely milestones on the path to reaching your true goal.

Fitness goals, in order to be effective have to be long term. Why? Fitness is not achieved overnight, not in one week, not even in one month. The first step to true fitness is to identify your overall fitness goal.

Most people say they exercise “to be healthy” – that’s just too vague. Goals should be specific, measurable, and tangible. For example, an overall health goal could be “to have my cholesterol levels under control to the point where I can minimize the medication I need to take within one year.”

A lot of people undergo fitness training to lose weight, but some just focus on one part like the arms or the waist. This is unrealistic and unsustainable. A good example goal for weight / fat loss would be “I want to lose at least 50 lbs within a year from today, and fit into a size “insert desired size here”.

On the flip size, some people want to gain weight to look better and feel better about themselves. A good goal would be something like “I want to gain at least 20lbs of muscle in the next year.”

If you have ambitions of competing in sports, your goals could be some thing like, “I want to improve my basketball game to make the junior varsity next year,” or “I want to improve my swimming performance and lap times before next year’s competitions.”

These are all tangible, measurable, achievable, long-term goals that you can use, BUT there’s more to it than that. Now that you know what you want, the next step is to figure out how to achieve it, which is what the topic for the next article will be.

Please take a moment to complete our Fitness Survey so we can continue to research articles of interest to our readers. Click Here to take survey

Related Posts
Fitness Goals:  The Fun Fitness Program Questionnaire
The Best Exercises For Your Fitness Goals
Fit and Healthy On The Road: Keeping Up With Fitness Goals While Traveling

How can a Personal Trainer help you achieve your fitness goals? They can show you the correct and safe way to achieve the results you desire. Take the first step and schedule time with a personal trainer at your gym.
See if there is a complimentary free consultation at a local gym. There may even be an open house. If you are interested, take the first step and schedule yourself at the gym reception. It is a smart way to start your workout plan. And you will be working with a certified instructor – usually from the American Council on Exercise, the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America or American College of Sports Medicine. Your personal trainer, should be from one of these (or other well-known) organizations. This shows that he or she has, and it satisfied the requirements for certification of personal training. Ask whether they are also CPR / First Aid certified. This is useful to keep you informed and ensure that you deal with someone properly certified. Click Here to take survey

• Be prepared during your meeting with a list of questions for the training you will receive. You will also answer questions concerning your health and fitness. Some facilities even request an okay from your personal physician.

• Your personal trainer can determine the best equipment and exercises to achieve your fitness goals. You may only tour or sample exercise during their first meeting.

When you begin to exercise and follow your fitness routine, start slowly. Listen to your body! Take the opportunity to work with a personal trainer. Do not forget, if it hurts or you are unsure, STOP!

Create a comprehensive and systematic approach to your holistic fitness. Many people who are overweight or lack energy struggle with their chosen exercise routine.
There are many choices to get in shape, lose weight and tone: cycling, swimming, jogging or yoga. One of the most important aspects of a healthy life is selecting activities you enjoy.  If you love something, you will be able to participate and integrate it into your lifestyle.

Why you torture yourself? The trick is finding an exercise that is effective and fun. Whatever your choice, start slow and make sure you have enough skill. You may need to book a session with a personal trainer or private lesson with instructor. Take the time and select a good trainer who is good for you, understanding your goals and current fitness level.

• A holistic approach incorporates your weight loss and fitness goals.  In addition to your fitness goals, notice your stress. It may be the reason why you have too much fat around your belly. Stress hormone cortisone fluctuates during the day. Many people nowadays have stress and eat later at night. You are familiar with the results: weight gain, thyroid problems, sleep disorders, an increase in the production of cholesterol and heart attacks.

Holistic fitness addresses both your nutrition and exercise choices. Eat healthy, the right foods and remember to eat enough food if you want to lose weight. Eat too little and the body stores more fat to protect itself from starvation.

Other resources of interest:

http://www.holisticfitness.com/index.html

http://holisticfitness4u.com/

Okay now is the time to start your 90 Day Weight loss Plan.  I know I did at the beginning of March.  You know the plan.   When you realized you will not be able to hide inside your winter coat next month.  Oh yeah, it is time for the 09 Plan to begin. Weight loss is a common topic of conversation.  The standard Western diet has introduced high amounts of fat, oils, sugar and processed foods that have led to a weight problem that affects most countries.  Fitness weight loss is an option that is more palatable than only decreasing calorie intake.

Adding fitness to your weight loss program can take many forms.  The objective is to keep moving for at least 10 minutes working up to 60 minutes as your schedule allows.  These programs can include, but are not limited to, walking, running, swimming, rowing, tennis, and golf.

Continued movement will give you the health benefits that include fitness, weight loss, increased energy, decreased cholesterol and blood pressure, decreased risk of stroke and heart attack and decreased risk of breast cancer and colon cancer, as well as improving your core muscle strength.

You should always check with your doctor before beginning.  Your physician will consider your current medical conditions, medications and your present physical condition.  The potential for more harm than good comes when you approach a fitness program without consideration for your current conditions when another fitness option may be better for you.

There are specific muscles that should be strengthened in a program and the core muscles should always be included.  Most programs focus on the muscles that are important to the particular exercise but ignoring core muscle strength can cause long term back problems.

Hard abdominal muscles are not only sexy but they serve a specific function to your health.  These muscles are located between your pelvis and your ribs and are in charge of giving you full range of movement to your upper body and to keep your internal organs in place and protected.  With weak abdominal muscles you are set up for injury and make it less likely that you will achieve your goals.

A study from the American University of St Louis found that although diet and exercise help with weight loss, people who do not exercise also lose muscle.  Fitness programs included in your weight loss plan is likely choice to keep your health, muscles and lose that weight.

Fitness programs are more successful when the client has the support of the people around them.  Recent studies have also shown that people who diet or exercise with a partner or a group will tend to be more successful at fitness weight loss and in keeping it off than those who try to go it alone.

Research backs up the current popular standard that fitness weight loss is the most successful way to lose weight, keep it off and improve your health.  There are an amazing number of fitness weight loss programs that you can work through.  The choice is really yours.  You chose health!