Danny Davis
Here are 85 tips to keep yourself in the right physical and mental conditioning it takes for you to reach your fitness goals.
1. What Are The Best Workouts?
The best workouts are those that you are willing to do on a regular basis for life. If you hate the exercise bike, or Zumba you won’t stick with it, it’s human nature. Of course, everyone needs to realize that fitness is necessary and so there will be some level of sacrifice, but, there is such a wide variety of choices in ways to get exercise that anyone can find something they enjoy.
2. What Are You Thinking?
Fitness is a mindset, so set your mind to it and just do it.
3. Exercise Is Not Enough
Exercise is not enough when you are trying to lose weight, calorie control and eating a proper diet is just as important.
4. Avoid Plateaus
In order to avoid fitness and weight loss plateaus, change your exercise routines regularly to keep the body guessing and shock it into action and avoid workout tolerance that stalls progress.
5. Consider Your Fitness Level
Fitness comes in levels, don’t over reach by starting in fitness with advanced level routines. Take the time to build up endurance and strength and reach those advanced levels in the proper manner.
6. Use Cold Water To Soothe Muscles
Soak in a cold tub for about 15 minutes after intense workouts. 55F degree water helps to soothe the aches and pains that can follow grueling workouts.
7. Invest In Good Shoes
Wear high quality well-fitting athletic shoes when you workout. The best athletic shoes provide the appropriate support and make sure your feet feel great during and after the exercise session. The best sneakers will feel good right from the start, and even better after some use.
8. Check Your Weight Early In The Morning
It’s best to step on the scale early in the morning before having anything to eat or drink.
9. Set Goals
Your mental state is the hardest part of the fitness routine and establishing a set of goals that you want to achieve is one of the most effective ways for you to keep yourself on track and progressing. Whether it be to lose weight or put on muscle weight, set a goal that is achievable, yet, still a challenge and in no time you’ll find yourself striving for more.
10. Push Your Limits
Your biggest enemy is yourself. Motivation and concentration can weigh you down and sometimes, the beauty of the routine can turn into monotony. The only way to keep your fitness peaking, is to push yourself. Always strive for more and make yourself achieve results you could never have imagined.
11. Invest In A Body Fat Caliper
When following a diet and fitness plan for weight loss using a body fat caliper to measure fat loss is one of the best ways to see your success.
12. Use A Small Plate
Portion control is the name of the game in weight loss, so ditch the big dinner plate, and use a 7″ or smaller plate for all your meals, this ensures you eat less and it looks like a lot more food than it actually is.
13. Watch Empty Calorie Intake!
Alcohol, for, example, has no nutritional value, it’s very high in calories, it’s full of sugar and it’s very fattening. The same goes for cookies, cakes, donuts and Cheetos, sorry.
14. Go Ahead And Cheat
Make any weight loss plan easier, designate a bi-weekly or weekly (okay if you workout regularly) cheat day where you will eat your faves guilt free.
15. Invest In A Pedometer
Pedometers are great little gadgets, keep one on you at all times to measure how many steps you have taken throughout the day.
16. Wear Sunglasses Outside
When working out outside, such as running or walking, wear sunglasses. They will prevent you from squinting, which, relaxes the shoulders and leaves more energy for the workout.
17. Don’t Forget The Core
Whether or not it is the focus of your image, the core is integral to not only the show off but to help keep your whole body healthy. Each workout routine needs a good balance of core exercises in order to maximize its effectiveness. If you are able to keep your core healthy, you will be able to be that 60 year old you see in your neighborhood that amazes you with his ability to still go for a run at 6 am every day.
18. Determination
Determination is the very reason you go to the gym. It’s comprised of your goals and ambitions, the reason why you go, who you go with and your future. If you can keep those things in mind, your determination will continue.
19. Gatorade Pitfalls
Electrolyte drinks can be a great source of energy and vitality in gearing the body for working out, but, they have a lot of sugar and calories, so opt for the diet ones, Diet Gatorade, Diet PowerAde, and others provide all the benefits without the bad stuff.
20. Prevent Vacation Gain
Prep for vacations and special occasions where you might eat more, or eat “bad” foods by adding a little more time to your workouts before and/or after. An extra 10 or 15 minutes per workout can make a big difference to counter those times when you celebrate.
21. Spice Up The Veggies
Fresh herbs, spices, and fresh garlic go a long way to spice up and put some dazzle into vegetables that otherwise can become a bore to eat.
22. Challenge Your Body!
If your workouts are feeling too easy, it’s time to turn the routine up a notch!
23. Craving Ice Cream?
Okay, then opt for a healthier variety. Bryers 98% fat free ice cream has 10.1 grams less fat per 1/2 cup serving and about 30% less calories than regular ice cream. Bryers sugar free ice cream has about 25% less calories than regular ice cream.
24. Undo
Besides all the other benefits of working out, there is the fact that when you do, it’s often a lot harder to eat unhealthy foods because you know you will undo all the exercise efforts you put in that day.
25. Get Some Workout Clothes
The right fitness attire makes a difference. The reason that fitness clothing is made to fit snug to the body is because it moves with you and doesn’t cause distraction, such as, those that can occur when wearing lose sweats that flutter around or worse yet, fall off the waist.
26. Get A Good Sports Bra
Ladies, a good sports bra with the right fit can be your best friend in fitness. Choose a comfortable and breathable fabric, and one that is loose around the chest area so that your ribs and diaphragm can expand properly during deep breathing.
27. Stop Stich Pain
To stop side stich pain while running or walking press your fist beneath your rib cage and take deep breaths for 10 steps, the pain should stop in about 30 seconds.
28. Don’t Get Bored
Eliminate boredom in working out by changing routines regularly. Choose a bike over the treadmill. Opt for an aerobics workout over the usual elliptical session.
29. Fuel Your Body
A healthy high carb meal before intense workouts will give you plenty of energy, try a whole grain English muffin with sugar free peanut butter or low-fat cream cheese.
30. Be Kind To Yourself
Don’t beat yourself if you’ve had a bad day! Whether you skipped a workout or ate fries for lunch, it’s okay, forgive yourself and start fresh the next day!
31. Portion Control Wins
Craving pizza? That’s okay, but eat one slice with a big side salad and a large sugar free iced tea, instead of half the pizza with a beer chaser.
32. Eat Slowly!
The brain takes 15 minutes to register satiation, when you eat fast you wind up eating more than you need to before you realize you’re full.
33. Protect Your Skin Outdoors
Always wear sunblock when working out outside.
34. Healthier Substitutions
Substitute sour cream, and mayo in your recipes with non-fat or low fat plain yogurt, it saves you lots of fat and calories.
35. Love Burgers?
Great, we all do, but skip the bun and get it lettuce wrapped instead. Most all restaurants do this now, thanks to the millions who follow the Atkins lifestyle.
36. Choices
Fitness and weight management is all about choices, so choose wisely!
37. Fitness Is For Life
Fitness is a lifelong process, not an end game! Once you’ve reached your goals maintain your success and keep it going.
38. It’s All In Your Hands
Take charge of your health, fitness is just a mindset away!
39. Row Row Row Your Boat
Rowing machines work the whole body, including the upper, the core and the legs.
40. Get Rid Of Belly Fat
Belly fat is one of the most harmful fats that is associated with risk to several health conditions. The only way to get rid of it with proper diet and exercise.
41. Avoid Neck Strain In Ab Workouts
Placing your tongue on the roof of the mouth when performing crunches aligns your head in the correct way and reduces the risk of neck strain.
42. Stretching After 40
For those in their 40’s stretching is more important than ever and they should be held for 60 seconds. This is because after 40 the muscles become more pliable and so they need to be stretched for longer periods.
43. Ladies Tone Those Muscles!
Lean muscle mass looks good, increases the metabolic rate and burns more fat than when the body is at rest.
44. Are You Bored?
Boredom is one of the top reasons people over eat and eat junk!
45. Count Backwards
When doing reps count them backwards instead of forward, having 3 left sounds better to the mind than having done 7!
46. Build Gorgeous Calves
To create trim, lean and gorgeous calves, stand on your tippy toes and rise up using your calf muscles, repeat until you feel the burn. This is an exercise you can do anywhere, anytime, even at the office while waiting at the copy machine.
47. Track Fitness Results For Motivation!
Track your body fat, and inches of waist, arms, hips and chest regularly, it will illustrate the rewards of your efforts and keep you motivated!
48. Breathing During Ab Work
Exhale at full force at the top movement in ab crunches, this makes your abs work harder and will bring better results.
49. Don’t Workout While Sick
The body will reserve its energy and resources for healing and the workout will be wasted, and you’ll feel worse in the end.
50. Workout At Your Own Pace
If you push yourself too hard, you are more likely to quit all together. If you have never worked out before, don’t start by planning to do an hour on a stair stepper in advanced mode. Make workouts enjoyable to keep going, in due time you will naturally increase your endurance, fitness level and increase your pace.
51. Pay The Trainer In Advance
Pay your personal trainer a few sessions in advance, this will motivate you to attend all sessions.
52. Beach Body Babes Can Motivate
Find fitness motivation with pictures of beach body babes, pin them in your house where you will see them all the time.
53. Stretching Is Important
Stretch before and after workouts! Before preps you for the exercise, and after just feels really good!
54. TV Time is Workout Time
Workout during your favorite TV shows, use resistance bands for strength training, do some ab crunches or simply walk or jog in place.
55. Exercise Relives Exhaustion
Too tired to workout? According to medical experts exercise actually gives you more energy by releasing, makes you feel good because it releases endorphins and gets circulation pumping.
56. Get Your Kids Involved in Fitness
Ride bikes, play soccer, go swimming, or just bump up the CD player and dance around.
57. Boredom Is Not An Excuse
With all the choices you have in exercising and the various workouts available, boredom is never a good excuse!
58. Motivation Is Key
Fitness takes motivation, so find yours, whether it’s to be healthier, live longer, have a hot body, heart health or as an example for your kids!
59. Combine Cardio with Building Lean Muscle Mass
A combination of weight training and cardio 3 to 4 times per week is the most effective road to fitness.
60. Move Regularly Throughout The Day
If you work at a desk all day, take 5 minutes to walk around every couple of hours, it can prevent general stiffness and resulting aches and pains at the end of the day, and movement is important to rev metabolism.
61. Stay Away From Refined Carbs
This includes, cookies, white starches, sugars, cereals, burger buns, crackers, honey, and soda, just to name a few. As soon as you ingest these types of carbs your blood sugars will spike and produce excess insulin, which is a hormone responsible for storing fat in the body.
62. Stock Up On Protein
High quality protein rich foods, like, chicken, low fat Greek yogurt, fish and egg whites contain amino acids that help with muscle recovery after workouts.
63. A Routine You Can Commit To On A Regular Basis
As you plan a routine that you think you are going to stick to, make sure it’s something you know that you can commit too regularly. For example, some have troubles actually getting themselves to go to the gym. If this is the case than you can try to focus on the cardio aspects of your workout! The key is to know yourself and know what will work best for your mind and body.
64. The Correct Mindset
Just as important as keeping your fitness up is knowing why you are doing it specifically. Some are self-motivated and others are motivated by perception. Be sure to iron out a reason for yourself as to why you’re going to get in shape. If you do it for anyone else other than yourself, the fear of failure could haunt you.
65. Losing Weight Isn’t Just About Exercise
As well as a healthy routine, you have to stay on top of your diet. Now, you don’t have to go crazy and become a hard-core calorie counter. Remember a balanced diet and try to eat all the food groups evenly. Don’t forget to cater to the needs of your routine as well. If you are going for mass development, then be sure to have plenty of protein in your diet!
66. Personal Trainers Are More Helpful Than You Think
Personal trainers can help beginners learn the proper workouts to reach their goals, whether weight loss, muscle building or for heart health. Some may be wary of attending a personal training session either inside or outside of a gym. However, the reality is that all of these individuals are professionally trained. As much as someone can seem like a know it all, they have the information for you to reach your maximum potentially and can provide you with new and fresh tips along the way.
67. Plan Ahead
Just any long term plan or serious undertaking, everything has its unexpected turns. The way to be successful against these is to prepare for what may occur. This could be relatively simple issues or very serious issues that can be a determent to your progress. For example, if you want to start with building mass then you have to make sure you can afford the costs of attending a gym to lift weights. This means considering everything from finances to diet.
68. Schedules Are Important
Keeping to a strict plan helps keep you in line to reach your goal. Some people like to try to keep track of where they are in their head, but you can lose motivation or even sometimes your mind can trick you into believing you are on schedule and not slacking off when you are.
69. Get A Workout Partner
Find a workout buddy, this makes you accountable to someone else so it’s harder to cancel workouts and it makes exercise more fun! Staying motivated is the biggest hindrance to keeping a healthy workout routine. If you drag someone else into the mix, it will help to keep you on track. In many ways a workout partner is beneficial to you. Whether it’s keeping you on schedule or pushing you too new limits, everyone is different. Just be sure when choosing a partner that they won’t be lazier then you! If they are, it’s a two way street and it’s just as much your job to keep them motivated as it is vice versa.
70. Get Outside
A great way to add variety to your workout is to get outside more often. The fresh air is what we are naturally used to as humans and helps to keep you calm as you are pushing yourself to continue your workout. On a lighter note, the atmosphere and scenery can help to soothe you by providing relaxing visuals as you are working out. This could be particularly useful for both cardio workouts and plyometric workouts.
71. Start In Spring
What a coincidence, its spring right now! By starting in the season that builds up the anticipation for the summer, it will be easier to make the transition into the hot summer months already prepared with a great arsenal of tools to support you in your workout.
72. Go Swimming
An often underestimated activity, swimming is actually one of the best activities you could do. It helps by reducing the chances of arthritis and other joint related pain. This means that you will still be kicking as you get older and have the body to show for it. If you are able to get out and swim more often, do it. It’s also another beautiful way to enjoy the weather that’s coming to us.
73. Get In The Sauna
The sauna provides a plethora of health benefits that many people do not even realize. It can sometimes be forgotten as an antiquated routine for a post workout but the heavy sweating induced by the sauna helps to rid your body of toxins, better absorb the H20 you are ingesting and give you the energy you need to finish the rest of your day.
74. Concentrate
With determination, there is another mental roadblock. Concentration becomes increasingly hard to achieve the easier things get. Keeping yourself on your toes with new routines and different environments can help to engage you mentally and have an easy source of entertainment.
75. Endurance Training
As you become more experienced and devoted to your mission, you will slowly realize the importance of endurance training. It can be looked over as something for runners or cardio- nuts but endurance affects your overall life and that of your weight lifting capacity as well. When you improve your endurance you are also improving your body’s ability to oxygenate your blood and in turn allow you to have more capacity for strength and longer runs.
76. Don’t Obsess Over The Scale!
Body weight is not the best determining factor of weight loss because weight can fluctuate at random. Also, if you’re working out and building lean muscle mass it weighs more than fat, so the scale might betray you there as well. A better measurement of success is how your clothes fit, or don’t fit. Measure your waist, arms, hips and chest area with a tape measure to gage inches lost. Also, use a body fat caliper to measure actual fat loss.
77. Proper Form Prevents Injury
The importance of proper form when engaging in any exercise is integral in maintaining a healthy muscular and skeletal structure. Did you ever see the video of the weight lifter who broke his back?
78. The Power Of Music
Music can be one of the greatest motivators in fitness, especially with cardio. Create a playlist that drives you to move! Everyone has different tastes and everyone likes a different genre but one commonality between all music is the rhythm. Sometimes this rhythm is great for keeping you on pace with your reps or even your laps. If you haven’t tried working out with music before, give it a try.
79. Tracking Your Progress
Your workout routine may drag on for a while if it’s a successful one and keeping track of your progress is a great way to remind yourself of what you have accomplished. By reminding yourself of your accomplishments, you can help to motivate your future progress and in times of doubt it can show you what you have worked so hard to achieve.
80. Rest
Rest, rest and rest. Often neglected by the fast-paced orientation of our society and the modern day 7-day a week weight lifters, rest is key to your routine. It is medically proven that your body repairs muscle tissue as it sleeps since it cannot do such as effectively when your body is being active. If you do not give yourself adequate rest in the correct intervals, it can seriously hold back your progress.
81. Hydration
The focus is usually directed towards your diet. How many carbs do you have a day? How much protein is in your shake? But the often neglected fact is the importance to stay hydrated throughout the day, not just taking the opportunity at the gym to show off your new BPA free water-bottle. If you are approaching it from an amateur’s perspective, just be sure to drink water constantly throughout the day. If you are serious about your body building or other fitness goals, be sure to consult a professional of what is best for you and your body. The key is to maintain a healthy balance between maintaining your hydration and not expelling your micronutrients before they can be properly absorbed in the bodily system.
82. Change It Up
Change is always good. Be sure to add new workouts or systematically rotate to a new routine. This can help keep you mentally happy and provide a way to challenge yourself by working different distinct muscle groups. The difference between running on a track and running outside is just as great as the difference between doing bench press to doing free-weight chest press can be rewarding.
83. Stock Up On Good Food
Diet is integral, if you neglect to fuel your body properly than you simply cannot achieve the development you desire. By stocking up on healthy food at the beginning of the week, you can be prepared for your whole workout. Most importantly, remember to do your research because healthy food doesn’t have to be bland and boring.
84. Avoid Quick Fixes
It’s already been discussed but dedication is the key to working out. If you are willing to take shortcuts, then you are not truly ready for the amount of work it takes to improve your overall fitness. Even more importantly, quick fixes can lead to scarier outcomes.
85. Get A New Wardrobe
You worked hard, you lost inches, weight, you toned, you tightened, now, get a new wardrobe to show it off!
