Thirty Fitness Tips

It’s a new year … time to ramp up your fitness regime! Here are 30 great fitness tips to get you started on achieving your New Year’s Resolutions!

1. Professional Advice – Consult with a degreed exercise professional and your private physician prior to starting an exercise program.
2. Get 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise 5 days a week, minimum.
3. Drink plenty of water throughout the day, especially while exercising.
4. Strengthen your core by exercising your abdominals 2 or 3 times a week.
5. Increase your flexibility with dynamic stretching before exercise and static stretching afterwards.
6. Proper Footwear: Buy shoes that fit and are for your specific exercise. Shop for shoes late in the day when your feet tend to be their largest and find shoes with a ½” of space in front of your longest toe.
7. Make an Appointment: Schedule your workout into your daily calendar.
8. Shake Things Up. Change your workout every two months to keep things fresh.
9. Learn to correctly read nutrition labels. Low fat and no fat aren’t always the best options. These tend to have higher levels of sugar and aren’t necessarily healthy options.
10. Reward yourself with a massage.
11. Include strength training in your program. It has a multitude of benefits besides adding mass.
12. Stay Off The Scales: These are not always an accurate measurement of your progress. You could be losing fat but gaining lean muscle thus losing inches but not necessarily losing pounds.
13. Keep a record. Test yourself often. Every 4 weeks measure a variable such as body fat percentage, weight or amount of weight lifted that equates to your end goal. The gains, or losses, are great motivators.
14. Reduce Alcohol Consumption. A single beer has anywhere from 100 to 150 empty calories.
15. Set Goals. Use the SMART approach. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely)
16. Replace one soft drink a day with a glass of water, with the end goal being one soft drink a day.
17. Don’t overdo it. Overtraining leads to injuries.
18. Get plenty of rest. A goal of a minimum of seven hours of sleep a night.
19. Avoid “man-sized” meals. Instead of two to three large meals aim for five to six small meals to maintain metabolism.
20. Plan active rest. Take at least two days a week and engage in activities other than your workout plan.
21. Get outside. Fresh air and sunshine help reduce stress and can be motivational.
22. Eat more fiber. Fiber makes you feel full, improves your cholesterol and aids in digestion.
23. Cut back on salt and fatty foods. Choose lean meats and fresh fruits and vegetables over canned whenever possible.
24. Dressing on the side. Instead of dousing your salad with dressing request it served on the side. Dip you fork into the dressing and then into your salad. The calorie savings will shock you.
25. Do the right reps for you. Lower reps for power, strength and size and higher reps for endurance, toning and weight loss.
26. Know your numbers. Keep active records of your blood pressure, body weight and cholesterol levels to name a few.
27. Heart Rate. Use your heart rate to measure your intensity not the amount of sweat.
28. Partner Up. To increase accountability workout with someone else, hire a personal trainer or participate in a group exercise class.
29. Have Fun. Pick cardiovascular exercises you enjoy to increase your enjoyment. People tend to stop doing things that they don’t enjoy, so pick one that fits your personality.
30. Plan meals ahead of time. This will allow you to make healthier choices and avoid the drive through lane.