Ten Things to Avoid When Starting a Personal Fitness Program

Many people start exercising with good intentions, motivation, and goals, but cannot continue beyond the first few days. It is very important to make exercise a part of your life style; it takes about a month to feel a new thing becoming a part of your life. Here are some suggestions of things to avoid when starting a new fitness program.

1. Do not expect to see results in a week

Despite the promise many advertisements, you will not see washboard abs, or a 20 lb weight loss in a week. If it does happen, something is totally wrong in your body, and you should see a doctor immediately! It is a gradual process to become healthy. If you lose your weight quick, you usually gain it back quick and possibly more.

2. Do not make your workout schedule too rigid.

Although it is a good idea to allocate a specific time of a day for working out, it can be hard in our life to actually can get the same time slot every day. Instead, use a floating time block system. For example, if you scheduled 1 hour of workout time at 7a.m., but end up with an early morning meeting, you can instead use your lunch time, or even divide your workout into two 30 minute sessions - morning and after work.

3. Do not compare yourself to others

Comparing yourself to someone else is the fastest way to discourage yourself and make you want to give up the commitment. There is always someone better at a specific point, e.g., your pal may have the larger biceps (but he has skinny legs), or your girl friend has a narrow waist (but her skin is sagging). You want to compare yourself today to yourself yesterday.

4. Do not buy expensive equipment

You do not need any expensive pieces of equipment. More than half of exercise machines (such as abdominal machines, or running machines) are used no more than a few weeks after purchased. As a beginner, only thing you need is a reasonably good pair of workout shoes.

5. Do not take it too seriously

If you do not enjoy what you are doing, you will not last. If you miss a workout today, just smile to yourself and workout tomorrow a bit more.

6. Do not limit your workout to a gym or to a certain time of day

You can work out anywhere, anytime. You do not need to go to a gym. In fact, there is a study, which tells us that some gym goers spent fewer calories per day than non-gym goers. How is this possible? These gym goers spent 30 minutes or so in a gym, but were totally sedentary the other 23.5 hours of the day. Some non-gym goers walk more, use stairs, or go dancing. On average, the latter group burns more calories per day than the former. So don't think that you can finish your workout after 20 minutes in a gym. Just use your body all day long.

7. Do not punish yourself

If you miss a workout, recognize that you missed a workout, and just reschedule the workout without guilt. A guilty feeling has a negative effect on your psyche. You want to reward yourself when you do workout, and that is a better way to keep you motivation.

8. Do not blame anyone

Don't blame anyone for what you did or did not do. Your body is totally your responsibility. No one will take care of yours but you.

9. Do not stop

It does not matter whether a workout is only 10 minutes, just keep doing it until the workout becomes a part of your daily life. At night, if you realize that you have not done any working out yet, then do some stretching for 10 minutes before going to bed. Just do something until working out is a part of your life style.

10. Do not wait till tomorrow, start now

Yes, start at this moment. there is a fifty percent chance that you won't start your personal fitness program if you wait until tomorrow.

Takashi Isobe is a personal fitness coach in Boston area. He is an Aikido instructor, ACE certified personal trainer, Coach U graduate personal coach, and avid tango dancer.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Takashi_Isobe