Get fit in 2010

So, another year another work out plan. Many of us let things slip during the Christmas season as there are far too many events which get in the way of our exercise routine and there are far too many tempting options on the menu to say no. Whether you’re one of those who took a slight break from your routine during December or if you simply never found the routine that works for you, maybe now is the time to make some serious changes to your programme and commence the new year with a workout plan that you can see through.

Before you decide how to go about this, ask yourself what do you want from your regime? Goals are usually either aesthetic or fitness related. One usually comes hand in hand with the other however sometimes one of the two can be more important to certain people than the other. Post Christmas the majority of the goals tend to be aesthetic as we tend to eat and drink vast amounts in a short period of time which may have an effect on our appearance but is unlikely to make much difference to our overall fitness.

The quickest way to get back on track is to return to a healthy diet and commence a challenging exercise regime. Regular exercise is usually enough to help someone maintain their shape but in order to lose weight or burn serious fat we get best results when combining the two.

If I could give you all a piece of advice, which I will, I would say don’t just do the diet. Although this does result in weight loss, a large share of the weight lost is in muscle mass which only makes it harder to burn fat in the future. Allow me to explain. The human body is similar to a car. The muscles are like an engine and bigger engines burn more fuel. Similarly bigger muscles burn more calories. Dieting on it’s own results in less muscle mass which means less calories will be burned on a daily basis and unless your calorie intake is reduced on a permanent basis, the excess calories get stored as fat. By performing regular resistance training you can increase muscle mass which will prevent fat gain in the future. You do not need to get “muscley” , you simply need to make a slight increase in muscle size which will result in a more toned look rather than a muscular look.

Setting Effective Fitness Goals

Keeping fit isn’t something that people would necessarily choose to do. After all, if we refer back to the olden days - I'm talking cave men times, exercise was a necessity. It was part of our daily routine in order to survive. We would walk, run and lift on a daily basis in order to stay fed, keep warm, and avoid becoming the hunted. Food wasn’t on tap like it is today. In order to eat we had to perform physical activity. These days we don’t even need to walk to the shops. It is for that reason that we have to find a way to incorporate this non compulsory exercise into our lives, because essentially, our bodies were designed to exercise. Without exercise we don’t function properly.

Let’s look at sport as an example of exercise, because, like survival, there are goals to sport. Both short term and long term. Football teams want to score a goal. They want to score enough goals to win the match. They want to win enough matches to win the league and so on. Most of us will succumb to a challenge, whether it is finishing The Times crossword or winning a game of tennis. There is a purpose, a goal, a reason to partake in the activity.

In order to make exercise more interesting and effective we need goals. A visit to the gym without a goal could be considered a pointless activity. Now, we could argue that the goal is to get fit, however this is a long term goal with no specific benchmarks. To really have a goal is to have a number of goals, short and long term. If you lift weights, you should be looking to step up to the next weight. If you run, you should be looking to knock seconds off of your personal best. Not only does this give you something to aim for and think about during each individual session, but it gives the session a measurable purpose. It also means you can actively achieve a goal which is far more satisfying then the feeling you get from simply ‘doing some exercise’. That particular achievement is usually only satisfying on your first visit to the gym.

Above all, goals must be realistic, because if we start an exercise regime with unrealistic goals we will soon become disappointed and give up hope. A popular system of remembering how to set effective goals is called the “SMART GOALS” approach. It states that goals must be:

•Specific
•Measurable
•Agreed Upon
•Realistic
•Timelined

For a more detailed breakdown of how to set SMART goals email mailto:dom@dt-training.co.uk?subject=SMART%20Goals