Sunday, January 11, 2009

Fitness in Baby Steps

By Lillian F. Tighe

One of the fatal mistakes that many people make when theyre deciding to get into shape is to tackle the entire concept of fitness at one time. Incorporating fitness into your life takes time and wont happen overnight. Your body, mind, and spirit need time to adjust to the many changes that will be happening as you start to add exercise to your daily routine. This is why fitness in small steps is so important and will ensure that youre less likely to quit when you become overwhelmed with the changes in your life.

The first thing to do is to start by walking. Walking is an exercise that anyone can do and providing you walk for at least 30 minutes a day your fitness level will increase. Once you have been walking for a couple of months you will feel able to add other exercise to your fitness regime. You can join a gym, start power walking or may be even go hiking!

Make sure that you invest in a good pair of walking shoes so that your feet are well supported and cushioned as you walk. If you get sore feet from walking you wont want to continue your fitness routine. You might also want to buy a pedometer so that you can keep track of how far you walk each day.

In order to get used to a fitness routine, decide what you are going to do and do only that for the first couple of weeks. This gives your body time to adjust. Measure the distance you walk and the time that it takes and write this down. Remember we are aiming at 30 minutes a day to start with. This will allow you to measure your progress. After you have walked for the same time and distance for two weeks, whether this is 30 minutes or 10 minutes, then add 5 minutes of additional walking each week. Never try to go to far too fast. You do not want to injure yourself by doing more than your body is ready for.

Besides your daily walking routine you can find any and all ways to get moving. This means taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking your car around the corner from your destination and walking a block or two, and leaving your car at home whenever you can. Your goal for fitness is to get moving and to keep moving.

After a couple months of taking the above small steps towards fitness youll start to see a significant change in your fitness level. Youll find that you feel better, have more energy, are sleeping more soundly, and feel better about yourself.

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