For some, starting an exercise program may be a daunting prospect. Even if you get started, there are always those days when you just don’t feel like going to the gym or out for that run. And once you skip that first day, it sure is easier to skip the next. How do you stay committed to your fitness program? Try finding a workout partner. If there is someone who will be let down by your no-show, you will be a lot less likely to skip exercise.

Numerous studies have shown that there is a high dropout rate in workout attendance within the first six month – approximately 50 percent.

In my experience working with fitness enthusiasts, it has become evident that to achieve maximal gains in both muscular and cardiovascular fitness, there must be a specific goal in mind that will motivate you to be consistent in your training efforts. Ultimately, this motivation is often best provided by a training partner.

Although many of the positive aspects of having a training partner relate to strength training, most apply to cardiovascular conditioning as well. Here are some ways training with a partner can benefit you…

Safety

One of the most important functions a partner can perform is spotting. A spotter ensures the safety of the person lifting the weights. A good spotter is the cornerstone of good, productive workouts. Proper supervision should be one-on-one. By knowing the lifter’s workout style, the spotter will be better able to “push” the lifter to achieve more repetitions, in good form, that he or she would have been able to do alone. Your spotter can help you attempt that extra repetition as you approach momentary muscular failure – whereas you might have prematurely ended the set for safety reasons if you were lifting on your own. Proper overload will lead to a faster and more efficient progression.

Motivation

Motivation is the key to success in any facet of life. Before you can motivate someone else, you must be highly motivated yourself. By having particular goals in mind, you will be more able to motivate yourself and your partner throughout your training program.

Motivation must be practiced daily, both psychologically and physically, through verbal encouragement. A spotter can encourage his or her partner while reinforcing proper form and technique. Physical motivation can be achieved through actual workout results. Motivation leads to maximum effort that, in turn, leads to maximum gains.

Consistency

As previously mentioned, continued commitment to exercise after the first six months is particularly low. Having a workout partner, however, will make you far less likely to skip days or arrive late for training sessions. In the end, you will become more dedicated to your exercise habits if you establish a consistent training program that you and your partner adhere to.

Social Interaction

For some people, the social aspect of working out in a gym is just as important as the exercise. When two or more people train together, loyalty, trust, and friendship develop between partners. When your partner is your spouse, time spent working out can be quality time together. No matter who your partner is, conversation can help your training become less monotonous and help it flow more smoothly.

Friendly Competition

Friendly competition between partners can add fun to working out. For example, if you both share a common goal, you may want to see who is the first to achieve it. It leads to better workout adherance and a higher level of awareness of your short-term and long-term goals.

Understanding

A training partner often knows your eating habits, exercise habits, attitude changes, and level of commitment. At any level, the more educated you are about your partner, the more you can help him or her achieve personal goals.

A partner will allow you to progress to the next level, while supporting your efforts. If your goal is a higher level of fitness, a workout partner can effectively provide the necessary tools, motivation, and positive outlook for your workout efforts.

We all have our own individual reasons for beginning an exercise program.

Now more than ever before, there is a growing emphasis on feeling good, looking good, and living a longer, healthier life.  Increasingly, scientific evidence tells us that one of the keys to achieving these ideals is fitness and exercise.  But if you spend your days at a sedentary job and pass your evening as a “couch potato,” it may require some determination and commitment to make regular activity a part of your daily routine.

You’ve surely seen enough how-to-do-anything-in-just-a-few-easy-steps lists to know they’re a bit too simplistic to be true.  The following guidelines I will be talking about are not intended to condense everything there is to know about healthy living advice into a few bite-size chunks; nor are they black-and-white rules about what you absolutely must or mustn’t do.  Instead, they are intended as guide to help you get started and achieve you goals.

I want to give you a solid, sensible, smart foundation for overhauling your attitude toward exercise.  And believe me, your attitude is everything when it comes to meeting goals of any kind.

First of all, before starting your exercise program, you should try to establish what your goals are.  Do you want to lower your blood pressure?  Lose some weight?  Be able to walk a few blocks without feeling winded?  Reduce your risk of heart disease?  These are all wonderful reasons to get moving, but wanting to exercise for these reasons doesn’t necessarily mean you will get out and do it.  You need to have the attitude that you’re ready to get started, and take it one day at a time from there.

To get started, develop your plan of attack.  You need to set realistic goals and track your progress.  I am going to offer some strategies for sticking to your plan so that your workout program is as successful as possible.

Before you embark on an exercise program, clarify why you want to get fit.  Once you do that, make sure you’re doing this for yourself-not simply to please your spouse, your doctor, or anyone else who would like to see you feeling your best.

Now it’s time to start setting your specific goals.  Research shows that goal-setting works.  In typical studies, scientists give one group of exercisers a specific goal, such as doing 50 sit-ups.  Meanwhile, they tell a second group of exercisers simply to “do your best.”  The exercisers with specific goals tend to have significantly more success than the comparison groups.

Next, you need to go out and buy yourself a nice notebook or journal.  It can be easy to set goals and rewards, but it’s even easier to forget what they are.  You can keep yourself honest – and motivated – by tracking your goals and accomplishments on paper.  Start each day by reading your exercise goals and re-affirm your reason for doing it.

Whatever your goals are, a training diary can help you get the best results.  You can look back at the end of each week and say, “I did that?”  And you may be inspired to accomplish even more.  Keeping a log shows you whether your goals are realistic and gives you insight into your exercise patterns.  If you’re losing weight, building strength, or developing stamina, you won’t have to wonder what works, because you’ll have a blow-by-blow description of everything you’ve done to reach your goals.

My recommendation for getting started is to find a friend or neighbor who shares your enthusiasm to get out and get moving.  When you commit to exercise with a buddy, your chances of sticking with it go way up.  The support you give one another will motivate you to get out for that scheduled walk even when you really don’t feel like it. If you’ve always wanted to join a gym, or attend an exercise class, it’s nice to participate with your workout buddy who shares your vision.  You can push one another, laugh and joke as you learn the ropes, and motivate one another to get out and get the job done!

When you get in from your work-outs each day, write in your journal the exercises you did, how long you worked out, and most importantly, how it made you feel when you were through. If your workouts include walking or running, don’t forget to look up at the beauty that surrounds you – feel the fresh, crisp air you’re breathing, enjoy the experience.   Each time you go out to exercise, try to go do at least as much, if not a little more than you did the last time.

Exercise doesn’t need to be painful, but if you’ve neglected your body, don’t expect to get a free ride.  Despite what you might hear on those infomercials – “just five minutes a day”, doesn’t cut it.  Exercise is a serious commitment.  You can’t get into shape without exerting some real effort and, perhaps, without experiencing some (but not a lot of) discomfort at first.

So…your “get-started” homework for this week is:
1.  Set realistic goals for the week.
2.  Buy a journal for recording your workouts.
3.  Get out for a workout with a friend or spouse 2 to 3 times this week.
4.  Write down your workout stats every day.
5.  Have a good attitude!  You’ve just made one of the best decisions of your life!

To be healthy we all know that we need to do some form of exercise on a regular basis. But choosing what type of exercise we should be doing, how long should we be doing it for and how hard should we be working while we are doing it can be a little confusing? A complete fitness and exercise program should incorporate three basic components: Endurance (Aerobic), Flexibility, and Strength. Each of these components has specific guidelines, which govern their effectiveness.

Endurance, specifically Aerobic Endurance, is probably the most frequently participated in aspect of fitness due to its wide-ranging benefits. To be effective aerobic exercise should be optimally performed four times a week for 30 minutes or more at a training heart rate of 50-90%. People who are just beginning may need to start at 5 minutes and then gradually add time on until they reach 30 minutes or more. Exercise should be one that elevates your heart rate into your target range, is continuous in nature, and uses large muscle groups. Some examples of aerobic type exercise are Walking, Jogging, Running, Swimming, Bicycling, Stair Climbing, Rowing, Jumping Rope, Aerobics class, and Dancing.

For whatever reason Flexibility is one of the most often neglected aspects of a fitness program. We need to remember that muscles that lack flexibility do not move as well, which can restrict the movement of our joints and increase the risk of injury. Flexibility type exercise is best done when the muscle is warm. Warm muscles perform better. Active short duration flexibility exercises of 5-10 seconds, can be performed as part of a warm-up. Static flexibility exercises, where the exercise is held for longer duration’s, 30-60 seconds , should be performed at the conclusion of the exercise session.

Resistance training allows the body to retain and increase muscle mass. When we lose muscle mass we not only lose strength but decrease our metabolism. Increases in strength allow us to perform our everyday activities a little easier. Resistance training sessions can be performed two or more times a week and should incorporate all the major muscle groups. The amount of resistance and repetitions are dependent on what your over all goals are. The same muscle groups should not be exercised on successive days. Forty-eight hours rest should be given between strength sessions of the same muscle groups.

Each of these components is inter-dependent on the other and are necessary for a complete fitness program. They all can be incorporated into one exercise session. Contact your local fitness professional if you need additional assistance in organizing your program.

It is quite evident that everyone can not, and should not, be as thin as some of the movie stars and models you see on the covers of magazines these days.  These pictures are not only commonly airbrushed, but most certainly unattainable for the standard adult.  Common sense and sound nutrition and exercise principles mandate that you should avoid setting “hard and fast” body weight goals.  Rather, you should strive to achieve a body weight that is compatible with a healthy lifestyle by combining both sensible eating, and regular exercise.

To determine ideal body weight, you shouldn’t rely solely on a bathroom scale, height-weight measurements, or body fat percentage measurements.  What represents a safe, realistic, and perhaps even more importantly, attainable body weight for you will depend (to a large extent) on the following factors:

1.  Medical History: Your current medical history, to include a thoughtful review of your personal health risk factors, should be taken into account when attempting to define your ideal body weight.  For example, if your blood pressure is elevated, a modest weight reduction could be quite beneficial.  Extra body mass means that your heart must work harder to pump blood through miles of extra capillaries that feed that extra tissue.  People with diabetes are examples of medical conditions that can be positively affected by weight loss.

2.  Family History: Body weight, like most other physical characteristics, is strongly influenced by genetics.  If your parent and siblings are extremely heavy, it is highly unlikely that you will ever be really thin.  As unfair as this may appear, such a limitation should be kept in mind when establishing your ideal body weight goals.

3.  Body Composition: Leaner bodies are more effective calorie burners.  The more muscle or lean body mass you have, the more calories you burn.  Men naturally have more muscle mass than women, and as a result have higher metabolic rates.  Furthermore, individuals who exercise on a regular basis tend to have more muscle mass and higher metabolic rates compared to non-exercisers.  Add a strength-training program to your fitness regimen and build the muscle needed to raise your metabolic level.

4.  Body Fat Distribution: Body fat located in your upper body region is very risky in terms of your health.  If you have a high amount of upper body fat, you should consider losing weight (specifically body fat) through a combined program of sensible eating and exercise.  One accepted method of determining whether you have an excessive amount of upper body fat is to look at your waist-to-hip ratio.  This is determined by dividing the waist circumference by the hip circumference.  Measure the waist at the smallest point, the hips at the largest.  Men with WHR values exceeding 1.00 are considered to have an excessive amount of upper body fat, while those with less are deemed to have an acceptable level.  Women with WHR values above 0.80 are considered to have an unhealthy amount of upper body fat, under 0.80 is acceptable.

5.  Functional Ability: If your existing body weight inhibits your ability to effectively and efficiently perform your activities of daily living, and comfortably engage in the recreational activities of your choice, it is probably not an ideal level.

To whatever extent genetics determines how you store and lose fat, the body you’ve been given wants to be appreciated and treated well, even if being thin is not in its future.  Exercise and low-fat eating are two of the most important ways that you can help to make your body healthier.  Focusing on pleasurable activity and nutritious foods helps you feel good for who you are, not what size you wear.

There are simply two rules to getting in better shape, and losing body fat.  If that is your goal, why not start every day with this affirmation to yourself…”Today I will eat a little less, and move a little more.”  Tape it to your bathroom mirror, and repeat it throughout the day.  Then get out there and DO IT!!!