Kenneth Gardner
MANY OF you, as exercisers, face the challenge of developing an exercise programme that integrates all the important fitness components. You may also face the challenge of maintaining your motivation to continue the programme and so, generally, I suggest a complete fitness programme based on the activities that you most enjoy.
Setting goals is a crucial first step. We need to first ask ourselves, 'What do we want from our fitness programme?' Then, we need to develop different types of goals - some of them will be general, specific, short-term and long-term goals.
SET GOALS
General or long-term goals can include lowering the risk for chronic diseases, improving our physical appearance or improving our energy level. It is also a good idea to develop specific, short-term goals based on measurable factors. For example, specific goals can be time taken to walk or jog a mile, increasing the number of exercise repetitions or reducing your waistline. Setting specific goals allows you to follow your progress and enjoy the measurable changes as a result of your exercise programme.
Assessing your level of physical fitness helps you to identify exercises to be emphasised and to understand difficulties in achieving specific goals. You will continue with your programme if you choose goals that are both important and realistic.
It is wise to include exercises to develop various components of fitness. Aerobic activities such as walking, jogging, running and aerobic dancing involve continuous rhythmic movements of large muscle groups and will develop cardiorespiratory endurance; resistance training will develop muscle strength and endurance; exercise that involves stretching will develop flexibility; and a combination of cardiorespiratory endurance exercises and resistance training will develop muscle mass and lead to a healthy body composition.
You should apply strategies that will help you achieve your goals. One approach, for example, is to select a sample of exercises for each component of fitness (as discussed above) and for each exercise session. Another strategy is to apply the principle of cross-training which uses several different activities to develop a particular fitness component. Choose activities that support your programme instead of activities that turn exercise into a chore.
Your fitness programme is much more likely to be successful if you choose activities that you enjoy doing. So, start by considering activities that you currently enjoy, then modify current activities to fit your fitness programme. You should also consider that unless the exercise session can fit easily into your daily schedule, you are unlikely to maintain the programme long enough to enjoy its long-term benefits.
REWARDS
To keep your programme on track, it is important to set up a system of goals and rewards. Break your specific goals into several steps and set a target date for each step. Give yourself a reasonable time to track your progress and reward yourself as you move toward your next goal.
Keep a record of your progress as an easy reminder of your progress and as an incentive for improvement. Make your commitment to the exercise programme by developing a contract and sign it with an exercise partner. Place the contract at a spot where it can be a visible reminder of your devotion to your fitness programme.
Kenneth Gardner is an exercise physiologist at the G. C. Foster College of Physical Education; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.
