The Elements Of An Effective Personal Fitness Program
The great thing about personal fitness programs is that they can be personalized. You can alter the program to suit your unique needs. However, there are still some specific elements that a personalized fitness program needs to have in order to be effective.
A Goal
Before you even start building a personalized fitness program, you need to know what the goal of that program is. For instance, you would build a very different program if your goal is to lose 15 pounds as opposed to if your goal is to add 10 pounds of muscle. Make sure your fitness goal is specific. Don't just say, for instance, that you want to lose weight. Say how much you want to lose. Also make sure your goal is attainable within a reasonable time period. Even if your overall hope is to lose 100 pounds, it may help to make your short-term goal to lose 20 pounds. After you achieve that goal, you can set a new goal and create a new fitness program that better fits your needs at that point in the future.
Specific Exercises
Some people give themselves a lot of flexibility in their fitness plan with the idea that doing so makes the plan easier to follow. However, it often has the unwanted side effect of allowing you to push the limits and "cheat" too much. It is therefore important that your fitness program lists specific exercises. For instance, don't just plan on weight training three days a week. Specify which machines you will use each day, which exercises you will do, and which muscle groups you will target in each workout.
Rest
Rest is actually when your body repairs the damage you cause during workouts and comes back stronger. If you just work out every day with no rest in between, your body won't have enough time to recover, and your performance will suffer. You may even develop some over-use injuries. Most fitness plans call for at least two rest days per week. If you are new to working out or if you are prone to injuries, you may want to create a plan with three rest days so that you're never working out more than two days in a row.
A personal fitness program should suit your unique needs. As long as it includes a goal, specific exercises, and rest days, the rest is up to you.
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