6 Steps to Fitness Success by Allan Keller

Don’t even know where to begin? Feeling stuck in a rut with your current routine?  Check out these six steps to ensure you get what you want from your fitness program.

1)  Start with a single goal
To be successful, you need to know what you want to accomplish.  Otherwise, you’re flying blind.  Choose a goal that's meaningful to you and work towards that.  You can always choose another goal later, but focusing on one at a time will keep you moving in the right direction.

2) Figure out where you are NOW
It’s easy to fall into the trap of emulating others or doing what’s trendy; however it’s important to ask yourself what’s the right way for me to exercise right now?  The best way to answer this question is to assess your current situation.  Do you have any pain?  Does your posture indicate any imbalances?  Are some movements easier for you than others?  There are a number of different ways to evaluate your starting point, but what’s critical is that you do it.

3)  Write your plan
Your goal is your destination.  Your assessment is your starting point.  Guess what you need next?  That’s right, a solid road map to get you from now to your goal.  If you’re going to take the time to actually train, don’t waste it by winging it.  Having a written training plan will not only make your workouts more effective, but it will help keep you accountable as well.  Your plan should cover not only how often you plan to train, but what you’re going to do as well – and of course be focused on getting you from your current state to your end goal.

4)  Stay on target
You've written your plan now it's time to put it into action and track your progress.  Be sure to stick to the plan and give it a chance to work.  Remind yourself of your goal and why it's so important to you on a regular basis.

5)  Fuel your transformation
Numerous studies show that diet and exercise together produce the best results.  But it’s worth emphasizing this. Regardless of how much you absolutely kill it in your workouts - you just can’t out-train a bad diet.  Focusing on proper nutrition will boost your workout efforts and allow your body to make the changes you want.  You wouldn’t expect a Ferrari to perform its best on regular unleaded gas would you?  Treat your body like a Ferrari and give yourself premium fuel.

6)  Results are in the recovery
Believe it or not, the changes you want don’t actually happen while you’re working out.  The majority of them happen afterwards.  Think of it in terms of a home remodel with your workout being like demolition day.  Things don’t look so great after that.  You wouldn’t want to leave your house in that state and you definitely don’t want to leave your body that way either.  Put in the effort to recover properly and your body will rebuild and remodel in response to the changes you’ve requested of it.  Drinking a post-workout shake, getting plenty of sleep, staying well hydrated and using things like foam rollers and massage to improve soft tissue quality are just a few ways to improve your regeneration efforts.

Allan Keller is a Westchase area fitness coach and owner of Direct Effect Fitness.  Allan can be reached at 813-333-9922 or allan@DirectEffectFitness.com. Have a question about fitness or nutrition?  Post a comment or send an email and you may see your topic featured in his next blog.