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Make goals!

Motivation is key; decide why you want to keep fit. Weather it is to slim down, be healthier, improve your fitness and skills or weather it is more specific.

Do you want to do minutes, hours or days of exercise; work on a specific part of your body, like core or biceps; or lose centimetres or kilos; do you want to have done a particular distance? Figure out exactly what it is that you want to do and write it down.

What do you want to achieve? Set realistic and measurable goals. If you are new at regular exercise start small and build it up gradually, remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day, you are working at REGULAR fitness and exercise because things don’t happen overnight. You need to make a few long-term goals or many short-term goals, and give yourself a good time to achieve them.

Give yourself a reward once you do achieve your set goals. This will motivate and encourage you to do the exercise required to achieve them. Keep in mind that your rewards shouldn’t undo all your hard work.

Make it fun!
Make a list of all the sports and physical activities you enjoy doing. At least one should be vigorous. Sports such as swimming, running, kayaking, skating, surfing, aerobics and playing soccer are vigorous.

If you aren’t sure what you would like to start doing, make a list of limitations for your activity e.g. Has to be individual/team, The amount of time it takes up, The accessibility to do that activity. If you have a goal specific to different parts of then body (look over set goals) refer to the “5 Components of fitness” this will also help you decide what to do as some sports/activities are better for improving different things. Try to also figure out how long you want to do your activities for in minutes/hours, refer to your set goals for this.

Make a schedule!
Making a schedule will eliminate the “no time” excuse. When your time is laid out you will always be able manage your commitments better and maximize time for exercise. Until exercise is a regular habit for you should make a weekly/fortnightly timetable so that you can keep track of when you are supposed to be doing what and for how long. This will also remind you of your goal and keep you motivated.

This schedule will also make it feel more real. When laying out your schedule try to make sure you have at least 30-60 minutes of exercise a day and this doesn’t include walking because while walking is at least some exercise, to really achieve better fitness and improve your health you need to increase your heart rate, or exert a lot of effort. After a month or so review your plan to see what has been working and what hasn’t been, then change it to fit you better.

Nice, x3!

that's very good!

Thankyou i always try to keep fit doesn't always go as planned though, so i wrote this as a guide

Thanks for such a good article, much appreciated!

now this will sound stupid ... but you could do an article on doing exercise to put weight on ! lol ..... you never get books or anything about gaining weight lol

What do you mean by getting weight on? Like getting muscle weight?

Haha sure i guess i could, you mean muscle weight right? the reason why there aren't many books about it is because most people think that body building can be a bit unhealthy and extreme how much are you looking to gain james? and is it for a sport like wrestling or football, or do you just want to be ripped? lol

Thanks for this amazing post, its really. Two months ago I started going to cross fit 3 times a week BEFORE school. Ugh its been killing me, but I feel great.

I'm not like trying to lose a ton of weight or anything else, I just want to be healthy and in the best shape I can be.

Veryy Good. I ll try this )