Action Plan: Your Five Steps to Fitness In 2014

Looking in the mirror doesn't always bring about the sense of pride that it should.  While some smile with confidence, others cringe with regret.  Often, people lose track of the very important fact that your physique is entirely up to you!

Achieving your goals this New Year requires a solid plan of action, and we've taken out the guesswork and put together an action plan to ensure your success!

Step #1:
Have an appropriate fitness & risk assessment conducted by a top professional:  This generally includes an evaluation of joint health, cardiovascular fitness parameters, muscular strength & flexibility normalities and balance.  From here, you'll know what your starting points are and how to put together your plan.  There may also be reason to consult your physician prior to beginning, which will be uncovered in this first step.

Step #2:
Determine your schedule:  Time won't magically occur in your schedule.  Block off the time in your calendar from week to week for the next several months to ensure that time does not become a reason to fail.  Make these timeslots "definites" as opposed to "negotiables."

Step #3:
Determine accurate and appropriate goals with a top fitness & health professional: This is where many people go wrong, presuming the amount of weight that they'd like to lose is medically appropriate or failing to tangibly determine goals that are helpful to how they'd like to look and feel.  Goals should include change in body composition, muscular balance, activities of daily living, circumference measurements such as hip and waist, and joint health/comfort.  Reducing problems such as low-back pain, tight muscles, muscular cramps, sleeping issues, and other wellness factors are also helpful goals that will aid your fitness.

Step #4:
Plan and visualize your exercise sessions:  It helps people to know where they will be exercising, what kind of music or TV might be on during the exercise, and what kind of climate, equipment, shoes, clothes, etc are likely to be involved. Take the time to think about the experience and start relating to it mentally before you actually begin, keeping in mind its purpose and end results.

Step #5:
Program design:  This final stage before implementation involves the following decisions -

• Exercise selection
• Intensity decisions relating to pulse rate and resistance
• Prioritization (ie, the amount of time devoted to each concern)
• Warm-up methods, rest & recovery periods, cool-down strategy

There you have it!  If you're going to be successful in achieving your desired level of fitness safely, then these five steps should be followed before actually getting started.  For each of these steps, the value of a top-certified, degreed Perfect Personal Trainer (and the team behind him or her) is of paramount importance.  To reserve your free consultation and "Step 1" fitness assessment, just visit http://perfectpersonaltraining.com

We're looking forward to your successes in 2014 and beyond!