Fitness Gear: The Importance Of Having A Workout Plan And Goals- Fitness Training For Life

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Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The Importance Of Having A Workout Plan And Goals

Having a workout plan is important because it can help you keep focused on what you need to be doing as far as exercising is concerned. You should incorporate exercise as part of your daily regimen, or at least four to five times a week. It should be one of the things at the top of your list to do each week, even if it starts out with 20 minutes a day. You can always work your way up to and add more time as you go. As with anything else, you will never achieve your goal to get fit and lose weight if you don’t have a plan in place. You have to want this to be important in your life. You have to be about action and not just talk. Anyone can say they want to lose weight, but if they don’t make the move to do anything about it, including planning, then it’s all for nothing.

You can begin by getting an exercise log book and writing down your workout plans. You can find a lot of free ones online by doing a search for “exercise log or exercise logs”. You can get the P90X logs here. Write down some ideas about what kind of exercises you would like to do. It could be something as simple as walking for 20 minutes a day, or however many times a week. If you are doing the P90X workout, then you can use those P90X logs to keep you on track.

When you actually do it, write down how long you actually walked. If you did less, don’t despair. You just have to work yourself up to that point where you can get to 20 minutes and eventually beyond. You can also plan ahead and write down how much you would like to have walked in a week’s time, a few weeks or even a month. You can do the same thing with food. You can log in how, what kind of foods you ate, when you ate them and how much you ate, if applicable. Knowing what you ate is important. This way you know whether you’re eating the right foods.

In addition to an exercise log, you should also have an exercise journal. An exercise journal is like a diary. In this case you’re writing down what you did during your exercise workouts. You write down where you started from and ended up at. With an exercise journal, you can add more narrative as something to reflect back on. An exercise journal is a good tool to plan your exercises. This way you can stay on track with what you’re supposed to be doing. It also helps you see where you came from and how much you have improved.

You should also set goals every week. When you do this, start off with goals that are easily accomplished in a specified period of time. You can even set goals with your eating regimen, purposing yourself to remove foods from your diet that are not good for you and replacing them with foods that have lots of vitamins and minerals. You should set goals that are realistic and not something far-fetched.

When you start your exercise workout, start out small. Don’t go overboard and try to do things that are out of your reach. You can add on more as your body is able to endure more workouts and you’re able to do them for a longer period of time. Take your time because you won’t get instant results. You can start your workouts at home. You don’t have to get into debt paying monthly fees at a gym or fitness facility. Get yourself an exercise video for about $12 - $15 and work with that. Or if you live near a park where there’s a walking path or a nature trail, you can do that. Pace yourself and when you’re ready for more, you can add more time to your workout.

Try different things in your workout. Instead of walking, try walking up and down the stairs at home or if you’re in a place with an elevator and stairs, take the stairs instead if applicable. If you have a bicycle, ride it on a bike trail.
As you continue to plan your workouts, keep an open mind when you write down what you want to do in order to lose the weight. Planning your workouts can keep your structured and on the right path.

by: UltimateFitnessGear