The Best Exercises For Your Fitness Goals

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

Fitness Goals: The Fun Fitness Program Questionnaire

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.

Fit and Healthy On The Road: Keeping-Up With Fitness Goals While Traveling

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.

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