Preparing For Fitness - How To Start An Exercise Program Safely

We all know that fitness is key to good health. But getting started on a fitness program is often very difficult. Working exercise into your busy schedule, figuring out the best fitness regimen for you, and staying on track are some of the biggest challenges.

Changing your lifestyle isn't an easy task. To help you get started, try these nine strategies for successfully incorporating a fitness program into your busy life:

1. First, think positively about your self, your goals, and how you want to achieve them. A positive outlook and a real determination will help you achieve your health goals. Write your health goal on an index card and keep it in your briefcase or at your desk as a reminder of what you seek; refer to it often to keep your goals fresh in your mind.

2. Schedule an examination with your doctor. Most doctors agree that beginning an exercise program is a great way to improve your health and manage stress -- but it's important to tailor your program to your health risks. Have your doctor check your health history, blood pressure, laboratory studies such as cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood glucose, and also review any medications. Better yet, find a doctor who can take these factors into consideration and provide you with an exercise prescription outlining the frequency, type or duration of your exercise program based on your health status.

3. Set attainable goals and track of your progress towards reaching them. People often set weight loss as their primary objective, but it shouldn't be the only determinant of success. Remember that for a longer lifespan, you should also consider improving cardiovascular (heart) health and endurance, muscle strength, coordination, and balance as other possible goals. You could also focus on lowering blood pressure and heart rate, or improving your eating habits and increasing flexibility.

4. If weight loss is your primary goal, remember that it should be viewed like a marathon race rather than a sprint. It's hard when you want to fit into that new pair of jeans now -- but steady, consistent weight loss over time is much better for your body's overall health, and you'll be more likely to keep it off. Losing just a couple pounds per week seems painfully slow, but set your sights on the big picture -- that pace, maintained over a 6-12 month period, translates to a total weight loss of 20-100 pounds!

5. Enlist the help of a buddy who has the same health goals as you. Studies have demonstrated that those who pair up with a friend to reach their health and fitness goals are able to stick to them. Even better, hire a health coach to help you stay on track -- it's the buddy system, but elevated up a notch since you'll now have a wellness specialist in your corner.

6. Whether you exercise at home or at the gym, pick a time that works best for you and stick to it. This not only will help your body adjust to your new exercise regimen, but sticking to a regular exercise time makes it easier for you to manage the rest of your day more efficiently. When adjusting your daily schedule to allow for time to exercise, consider whether you are more active in the morning, at noon, or in the evening -- and then schedule your daily workout accordingly. This way, you will be able to perform at your mental and physical best during your workout session.

7. If you're new to exercise, take it slow. Be sure to allow for regular rest intervals, as this will help you recover from the physical challenge of your workouts and keep fatigue and soreness to a minimum. Most often, people fall off the exercise bandwagon because of muscle pains or injury.

8. Keep a journal. A journal will help you chart your progress, reminding you of your ultimate goal and letting you visualize just how much progress you've made. A journal also lets you track how you feel throughout the process -- both physically and psychologically -- and can also help you identify any weak areas, so that you can work on them.

9. Incorporate other healthy lifestyle changes along with your new fitness program. Improving your diet will help you reach your weight and health goals even more quickly. Educate yourself on healthy ways to improve your diet with simple changes to the foods, additives, and oils that you use in cooking. Also, quit smoking, and decrease alcohol and caffeine consumption; this will enhance your physical abilities and contribute to your success.

By following these easy steps, you'll soon be on your way to developing a new healthy lifestyle that you can maintain for years to come.

Copyright Healthy U, LLC.

Dr. Patricia David, MD, MSPH is a board-certified Preventive Medicine physician, Certified Personal Trainer, and Certified Fitness and Nutrition Coach. She is founder of the Healthy U's Masaya Healing & Wellness Center, where you can get customized exercise prescriptions and nutrition programs that boost your metabolism, reduce your health risks, and help you achieve a lean, healthy body weight. To learn more about how we can help you succeed with your health goals and change the future of your health, visit [http://www.lifewellnessprogram.com] or call 888-253-3830.

Exercise in Your 30s - How to Set Achievable Fitness Goals For Your Lifestyle

Exercising, and setting fitness goals, can be a challenge at any age. But in your 30s, you have unique challenges. With these tips and a little planning, your exercise can fit into your 30s lifestyle and you can reach your goals.

Time to plan.
In your 30s, you are time-crunched. You might be getting married, starting to raise children, building a career, volunteering, and attending community events. You may be doing all of these things, every week!

Planning exercise into your busy schedule is important. Just as you need to fit friends and haircuts and grocery-shopping into your schedule, so the exercise must be planned, too.

Work your work-outs into your work.
The 30s are an age when many young people are immersed in career-building. As such, they may be so focused on work during daylight hours that exercise gets pushed aside.

To fit exercise into your work-day, get into a lunch-time work-out routine. Keep a pair of sneakers at work. At lunch-time, move!

If you exercise on your way to or from work, just keep a bag of work-out gear in your car. Put two sets of clothes in the bag on Monday, take them out on Friday for washing, and put them back in the car over the weekend (for the next week).

Include your friends.
If you have children already, then you need more quality-time with friends. Exercise is a great way to spend time with them, and get friendly support for your goals.

If you already spend a lot of your time with friends, then exercising together is an excellent way to bond. You are more likely to stay motivated, have fun, and reach goals when you exercise with friends.

Discuss your goals with your co-exercising friends. Set mutual goals together. And plan your exercise time together.

Play.
Your 30s are a great time to play sports. Finding a sport you enjoy is an extra way to be physically active and have a lot of fun doing it.

If you are a young parent, playing sports makes you a good role model for your children. They will see you having fun being active and they will model your behavior. Eventually, they will lead an active life, too.

Making physical activity fun, like playing sports, is the key to staying fit. You are more likely to stick to a program when it's fun. And being on a team means that you have peers supporting your goals.

Exercise is vital to good health. So, whether you are just 30, or closer to 40, make your exercise and your goals fit your lifestyle.

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Horizon PST6 Treadmill Review For the Fitness Enthusiast

The Horizon pst6 treadmill is a great treadmill with lots of features. This treadmill would be an excellent choice for anyone from expert or beginner at a good price. Horizon is also a very trusted brand in the fitness equipment industry.

The pst6 goes from 0-12 miles per and can easily be adjusted. It has a zero to twelve percent incline range. The higher your range and speed the more weight you will lose and the more stamina you will build. Some of the brands in the same price range only go ten miles per hour and don't even have an adjustable incline.

There are 8 built in workout programs that can help you meet your fitness goals. You could do a different workout each day of the week and never get bored! Other models that are the same price have workouts on cards that are sold separately. You'll save money right from the start and not have to worry about losing separate cards.

Horizon Fitness designed their PTS6 model with a blue backlit high-definition screen that gives you super clear viewing. The one touch speed and incline keys are also backlit. For those of you that can't read the monitors on other brand the pst6 model would give your eyes a break! The monitor shows speed, time, pulse, distance, incline, calories, program profiles, and pace. All the information you could ever want to know about your workout is right there.

The pst6 model has a two and a half horsepower MagForce motor. It holds up to a 375 pound. weight capacity and is perfect for larger people who need a wider belt. This tread belt measures 20"W x 55"L.

The warranty on the Horizon pst6 is one of the best offered! It has a lifetime frame warranty, a 20-year warranty on the motor, and one year on all parts and labor. Some of the other brands only offer 90 days!

The Horizon pst6 also has a pulse grip heart rate monitor which is very convenient ant. Just hold onto the handles and your heart rate will be displayed. This keeps you from having to stop your workout to take it manually.

The Horizon pst6 treadmill is a great treadmill with many of features not offered on other treadmills in this price range. With this treadmill you get a great brand and a fantastic warranty. This could be the only treadmill you ever have to buy.

Unknown models such as the Horizon pst6 treadmill can go under the radar but are still great valued treadmills. If you would like more information on Horizon treadmills and detailed reviews of other top brands, then visit Treadmill Buying Guides and Reviews.

Fitness Boxing - The Ultimate Training Routine

Fitness Boxing is one of the hottest fitness trends today thanks to Million Dollar Baby, The Contender, Cinderella Man and most recently, the 6th installment of the Rocky saga Rocky Balboa. Interest in boxing is at its highest level since the days of Muhammad Ali and “Smokin” Joe Frazier.

What is Fitness Boxing? Fitness Boxing is a total body workout that helps people achieve their fitness goals. It provides: - Variety - is different, challenging and fun - Strength gain - improves overall body strength and speed - Intensity - challenges both the aerobic and anaerobic systems - Burns calories - fat is burned to help increase and maintain lean muscle - Low risk of injury - provides intensity without injuring muscles and joints - Outstanding x-training for sports relying on “core strength” and mental toughness

Why Fitness Boxing? Participants rave about Fitness Boxing because workouts are always fun, challenging and produce results. The focus is on fitness first and boxing second using sound boxing techniques to get people into their best physical and mental shape learning to “fight without the fight”. The boxing workout improves every type of physical capacity: strength and power, coordination, aerobic and anaerobic fitness and endurance.

What are the Benefits of Fitness Boxing? The best aspects of workouts used by the world’s most finely conditioned athletes, boxers, are combined into a fitness program that’s safe for the recreational exerciser.

Fitness Boxing: Improves total body fitness - Challenges most of the body’s physiological systems: Central nervous system - Is trained to respond faster and more efficiently through punching combination drills Musculoskeletal system - Becomes stronger through specialized resistance exercises and boxing specific drills Cardiovascular and respiratory systems - Become more efficient via workouts that are more than 60% anaerobic - The training load is distributed across body parts providing a lower risk of injury. - Used as a training alternative, it provides a break in routine and adds variety to the fitness regimen.

What is a typical workout like? A session lasts about 60 minues and is divided into components to ensure a complete body workout.

Warm-up - The workout usually begins with 5 to 10 minutes of jump rope to warm up the muscles and tendons for the rest of the session.

Conditioning - The workout transitions from the warm-up into a few boxing specific strength and conditioning resistance exercises. The exercises emphasize muscular strength and endurance, speed, tone and anaerobic conditioning. About 10 minutes.

Technique - One or two new techniques are introduced in each session. The objective is to build from the basics, such as footwork or fundamental punches, to more complex combinations and defensive maneuvers. About 5 minutes.

Punching Drills - This is the heart of the workout and, usually, the most enjoyable part. A series of offensive and defensive routines are worked through utilizing a circuit training format employing focus mitts, heavy bags and more. This part is highly anaerobic, involving three minute rounds (work units) punctuated by one minute active recovery periods (rest units). Each round, one or two new things are added to the routine to be worked on. The first round might be using the jab, the second round, the right hand and some combinations of these. The variety of Punch Drill training is almost limitless. After 5 to 7 rounds, the participant should be de-stressed, refreshingly exhausted and invigorated. About 30 minutes.

Cool Down - This time is used to bring the heart rate down and stretch to improve flexibility. It can also be used as question / answer time with the trainer. About 10 minutes.

Stay tuned for part II… Fitness Boxing is fun - try it! click here [http://www.triangle-trainer.com/contact.html]

Copyright 2006 Triangle Trainer

Rick Goodman is an Elite Personal Fitness Trainer and Nutritionist. His fitness and health site, [http://www.triangletrainer.com] is known for its great content on fitness and health.

Rick Goodman - Committed to your Success! e-mail: rick@triangletrainer.com

1 Rep Fitness Review - Is 1 Rep Fitness a Scam?

Have you heard of the 1 Rep Fitness training program by Fabrice Rinaldi, and is it a scam or does it really work? This fat loss and muscle gaining program puts a lot of focus on weight training the right way, which is generally more effective than doing cardio for fat loss. So how does 1 Rep Fitness work?

How the 1 Rep Fitness Program Uses Weight Training to Burn Fat

The one thing that this program will help you to do first is to build up the lean muscles inside your body. It is the main ingredient that the body needs to melt fat. Research has shown that the correct weight training methods is much more effective at burning fat compared to doing cardiovascular exercises. Without muscles, your body will never have the shapely curves of the models who appear on magazine covers. It can never be achieved by doing cardio only.

How Can 1 Repetition with Moderate Weight Possibly Help You Burn Fat?

This is the concept of the exercise regime that Fabrice uses to shape muscle and burn fat on his body. The weight that he uses is moderate to slightly heavy, and from my experience from following his training program, the weights are manageable to lift and is not dangerous for lifting.

Using the 1 Rep pattern and the super short rest intervals of the exercises, you will find that your body will build lean muscle very quickly and your overall strength will increase. Your muscles are tricked into thinking that the weights are heavier than they actually are, thus more lean muscles grow during your recovery period.

Results after Using 1 Rep Fitness Program

Once my body started putting on all the lean muscles, my body fats, especially those around the belly, started to disappear fast. You can find out more about this European fitness system at the website link below.

Is 1 Rep Fitness a scam? Visit http://www.top-review.org/1repfitness.htm to read a FREE report about this European Fitness System to find out the truth before you buy 1 Rep Fitness!

Elliptical Trainer Review: Smooth Fitness

When it comes to elliptical trainers there is no one player who dominates the entire price range of models. There are different manufacturers who excel at different prices. For example, Icon Fitness rules the sub $1,000 price range through their various subsidiaries, including ProForm, Image, Weslo, Reebok and Nordic Track. The high-end is dominated by companies like Life Fitness and Precor.

In the mid-range category you have a number of contenders, but one company that is worth noting is Smooth Fitness. They are building quality elliptical trainers at a price that makes them a good value.

Selling Direct to the Consumer

For those unfamiliar with Smooth Fitness, they predominantly sell on the Internet. In fact, you cannot find their elliptical trainers at any stores. Their value proposition is to sell direct, thus cutting out the expenditure of the middleman.

Think about the expenses that are incurred when a company sells fitness equipment in a retail store. Besides the cost of the space, you also have to factor in the commissions paid to the salespeople. Selling online not only saves on retail costs, but also avoids the addition charge of local taxes. That can add up.

It should be noted that Smooth Fitness makes some exagerated claims regarding the reduction in price. That is typical marketing hype. And although you may not be saving over 40% on an elliptical trainer, you could be saving 5%-15% in comparison to purchasing through a retail store.

Smooth Fitness was one of the first businesses to sell high-end fitness equipment online. Initially they private labeled other brands like Spirit, Keys and Kettler. Approximately 5 years ago they started designing and manufacturing their own fitness equipment. In ten years they went from minor player to their recent inclusion in the Internet Retailer's Top 500 Guide, 2006-07 Edition. SmoothFitness.com came in at number 277 on the overall list, and was ranked the 15th largest e-tailer in the Sporting Goods category.

Smooth Elliptical Trainers Offer Value

The line-up of Smooth elliptical trainers is a perfect example why they have become a major player in the fitness equipment industry in such a short period of time. Their machines are engineered to be durable and yet provide a rewarding workout. For example, the Smooth CE 3.2 offers one of the better values in the $1,500+ price range. It is designed with a rear drive, which many find preferable, and claim it provides a smoother motion.

The machine itself weighs a hefty 175 lbs, adding to the stability. You get ergonomic pivoting foot pedals, that further reduce strain and impact. It comes standard with wireless heart rate control, for those who like to control and optimize their workout through their heart rate. You get a lifetime warranty on the frame and electromagnetic brake system, in addition to a 2 year parts and 1 year labor warranty.

One feature I particularly like is the built-in heart rate sensors in the upper handlebars. You will find that most elliptical trainers have heart rate monitors, but they are built into stationary handlebars. In order to get your heart rate you have to discontinue the upper body workout and hold onto the stationary handles, which defeats the purpose of the dual action workout.

Smooth Fitness currently has three elliptical trainers that are priced from $1,300-$2,000, they are the Smooth CE 2.1, 3.2 and 7.4. All their prices include shipping. Like other fitness equipment companies, the standard delivery is to your curbside. You may want to pay the extra few dollars to have their turnkey service, which includes inside delivery and set-up.

There is no question that there are better built elliptical trainers on the market. For example, Precor makes commercial grade elliptical trainers for the home. But they come with a commercial grade price, which is more than twice the cost of the Smooth Ellipticals. Of course, there are cheaper machines, but they are built with cheap components, which is reflected in a very limited warranty. The coverage is often 90 days parts and labor.

Combining quality and a moderate price, the Smooth elliptical trainers are one of the better values in the $1,000 - $2,000 price range.

Fred Waters is author of the Elliptical Trainer Review site, where you can get the latest Smooth Elliptical Trainer Reviews and Ratings.