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Eating healthy is one of the best things you can do for your body. What's even better is combining that with fitness work. It has a large variety of benifits including:

- Prevention of Diabetes Type II
- Prevention/delaying of heart disease (delaying - because some are possibly hereditary)
- Weight loss
- Prevention/delaying of osteoporosis (delaying - because it also has to do with diet)
- Improvement in appearance (physically, psychologically and emotionally)
- Prevention of depression
- Improvement in self esteem

While that is only a small amount of what fitness can do for your body and mind, the reason people decide to get fit can vary from person to person, from something like training for a triatholon to toning up.

There is no reason why you can't start today, and there is no reason as to why you can't train on a regular basis. The recommended amount is 30+ minutes daily of any physical activity (running, swimming, house work), however, as little as 30+ minutes daily 3x a week can show significant improvement to a sedentary person.

How much or how little you train is up to you. But by doing something, it's a lot better for your body then doing nothing. So get up off that couch and out the door to find yourself a healthier person.

General outline of this sticky:

1. Starting Out
2. Cardio-vascular Exercise
3. Weight Training
4. Flexibility Training
5. Warm-ups & Cool-downs
6. Exercising for Weight Loss
7. Calculations, Conversions & Measurements
8. FItness Programs
9. Reserved
10. Reserved

If you have any questions about fitness training that you would like answered, feel free to post here or PM me and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible and with the most accurate information. Just realise that their are different views and opinions on research and information, so there are conflicting views (stretching after a warm up opposed to stretching as a cool down opposed to not stretching at all), but I will try my best.

And if there is anything you wish to correct me on, please let me know. This information comes from the internet, from fitness books, physiology and anatomy books as well as from my class materials (I am currently in my forth and final year of a Bachelor of Education course specialising in Physical Education)

A question that is always asked is "what is cardio-vascuar exercise"?? Well to put it simply, ANY physical activity that gets your heart rate above resting. It has to do with the amount of blood your heart can pump through your body in a certain amount of time. This is the fastest way to weight loss (when combined with healthy eating) and it helps to strengthen bones when done regularly.

There is also something else called cardio-respiritory fitness which deals with your VO2 max. Your VO2 max is the volume of oxygen you can consume while exercising at your maximum capacity. The higher your VO2 max, the fitter you are.

So to start, the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning, find your pulse (best is the cortoriod artery in your neck, second best it the one in your wrist - below thumb joint at the base of your wrist), count the beats for 15, 20, 30 or 60 seconds. The longer the seconds, the more accurate your resting heart rate will be. So obviously, if you count for 15 seconds, multiply by 4. For 20 seconds, multiply by 3. For 30 seconds, multiply by 2.

The average pulse is around 72 beats per minute. However, it can range depending on the person. But as a general guide, the lower it is, the fitter you are and therefore, the higher it is, the more unfit you are. Recheck it every fortnight or so to see the improvement - always just after you woke up and haven't gotten out of bed yet. This is only for a guide if you are interested in this area, however, it's not necessary if you don't want to do it.

This next area can be a bit tricky as you will need a heart rate monitor of some sort. The portable ones are around $250 upwards for a decent one, but some cardio equipment at gyms already have them inbuilt. So unless you are going to be really serious about fitness (such as a professional athlete or training for a high level of competition), I wouldn't suggest investing in a heart rate monitor.

Training for fitness (train for a minimum of 20 minutes):
Find your maximal heart rate (see "CALCULATIONS") and use the following caculation to find your target fitness heart rate zone to train in:

Maximal heart rate x .8
Maximal heart rate x .9

Your heart rate is to rest in between these zones for cardio training - it burns 85% from carbohydrates, 15% from fat and less then 1% from protien (looseweight.md)

For the ideal cardio workout, train within these zones:

Maximal heart rate x .9
Maximal heart rate x 1

However, it is extreamly hard work and if you can keep it up for the 20 minutes, well sorry to say, but you would be lucky to unless you were an elite athlete. It burns a LOT of carbohydrates (around 90%), but less then 10% of fat and protien combined (looseweight.md)
These workouts are ideal in improving your cardiovascular and respiritory systems as well as the health of your heart.

Training for weight loss (train for a minimum of 20 minutes):
Find your maximal heart rate (see "CALCULATIONS") and use the following caculation to find your target fitness heart rate zone to train in:

Maximal heart rate x .6
Maximal heart rate x .7

You heart rate is to rest in between these zones for weight loss - it burns 10% from carbohydrates, 5% from protien and 85% from fat (looseweight.md)

But as I mentioned earlier, if you are only working at it for personal reasons, don't worry about the training zones, I have just added them in here for further information if you wish to get extreamly serious about your training.

However, there is another way of doing this if you are really interested in the zones, but it's not as accurate. You do this through your Rate of Percieved Exertion (RPE) which is on a scale of 1-10. You rank yourself out of 10 as to how hard you believe you are exercising.

1. No to little effort required (10% HR max)
2. Very easy exercise zone (20% HR max)
3. Easy exercise zone (30% HR max)
4. Comfortable exercise zone (40% HR max)
5. Comfortable exercise zone (50% HR max)
6. Fat burning zone (60% HR max)
7. Fat burning zone (70% HR max)
8. Cardio zone (80% HR max)
9. Cardio zone (90% HR max)
10. Putting everything you have into it (100% HR max)

How often you do cardio work is up to you. But, pretty self explanatory, the more you do it, the fitter you will become, the more weight you will loose (if this is what you are exercising for) and the faster it will occur. But ideally, if you plan to do weight training as well, 3-4 times a week is plenty. Probably 6 days a week at maximum as you need a day off each week for some relaxation time.

Some examples of cardio-vascular exercise

- Cycling
- Running
- Swimming
- Dancing
- Hiking
- Martial arts
- Gymnastics

Important points to remember

- Drink a lot of water! Cardio works up a sweat
- Go just above your comfort level, not too hard, but not to easy either
- If you are starting to feel uncomfortable, faint or in any pain, STOP
- Keep up the cardio often, it may take 12 weeks to get fit, but it only takes two weeks of sedentary living to loose majority of it

Training for flexibility is important, even though it may seem a bit boring (the guys find this especially, but then again, so do most girls), it is necessary in helping to prevent injuries, it can improve your sporting performance, it can prevent muscular soreness after a hard training session and obviously, it will increase your flexibility.

To do this properly, it is very time consuming, or so it seems if you prefer hard action, fast paced type activities. It is a relaxation exercise, so it is ideal for cool down sessions to wind down and let your body loosen up.

There are different types of stretching which I will list in a moment. They all have their benifits and they also have their disadvantages. But which ever you decide to do, to go from having average or below average flexibility to a significant increase, it will take a minimum of 6 weeks training at least 3x a week (preferably).

Ballistic - Movement of the body part to and past the terminal range (kicking your leg high in the air/swinging arms around the body - physical movements)
Sports best suited for: Gymnstics, dance, martial arts - any that involve displayment of flexibility during a motion
Advantages: Easy to do
Disadvantages: If you do not already have some degree of flexibility, it can cause tears and injuries to the muscle

Dynamic - Movement of the body part through the mid range (same as ballistic, however, not done to a high degree, only through your comfort zone with no strain)
Sports best suited for: Pretty much any, but once again, those that involve flexibility within their movements
Advantages: Easy and does not strain
Disadvantages: Not very effective as it's done within your comfort zone

Static - Stretching, your usual sit down/stand up stretch where you hold your limb/body in the position that stretches a particular muscle and then hold it between 15-60 seconds (sitting with legs straight out front and trying to touch your toes)
Sports best suited for: ALL
Advantages: Best way to obtain long term flexibility (the longer you hold the stretch, the more benificial the stretch is)
Disadvantages: Time consuming. To achieve a great increase in your flexibility, you need to hold the stretch around 60 seconds each. That is hold the stretch for about 20, increase the stretch (pull further) and hold for another 20 seconds, increase the stretch and hold for the last 20 seconds, relax and repeat

PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation) - There are three different types of PNF, but they all have the same principle: stretch the muscle for around 20 seconds, contract that same muscle and push against an immovable force for around 6 seconds, stretch again (in which you can stretch further), repeat.
Type 1 - isometric - is done with a person applying the immovable force. A good example of this one is a hamstring stretch. You lay on your back with one leg on the floor, the other raised leaning on the other persons shoulder. That person holds down your bottom leg and pushes your top leg into a stretch. You then push the top leg down (using only your leg muscles - so contract your hamstring), then relax. Your partner can then stretch the leg further and repeat the process.
Type 2 - reciprocal inhibition - involves the use of your own muscles, once again, using the hamstring stretch: you are in the same position, however your quadricepts contract to pull your leg closer to your body. You then relax it against something in that position (rubber tubing or a rolled towel placed around your ankle and held by your hands is ideal) and then repeat
Type 3 is just a mixture of the two
Sports best suited for: Pretty much any sports, but really good if you need to improve your flexibility very quickly for some reason
Advantages: Significant imporvements in a few minutes
Disadvantages: Unless done very regularly, you will loose the flexibility as quickly as you gained it

Now finally, can you be too flexible?? Well although it is possible to be too flexible, it is not overly common as most sports and physical activity do not require an excess amount of flexibility (sports such as gymnastics demand a high degree of flexibility). By being too flexible, you are at a greater risk of injury and permanent damage because you are no longer stretching only muscles and tendons, you are also stretching ligaments which will make joints unstable in the long run. But there is a way to combat this... strength work. To put it simply, the more strength you have, the more flexibility training you need. The more flexible you are, the more strength training you need.

DO NOT...

- Stretch until you feel pain. Flexibility does NOT follow the rules of 'no pain, no gain', you could do some serious damage. Stretch until you feel discomfort.
- Do a hamstring stretch by standing up and touching your toes. In this position, you are trying to stetch those muscles by touching your toes, but your hamstrings are trying to contract to keep you from falling over. It's an ineffective stretch
- Stretch cold. Muscles can not effectively stretch until they're warm. Just any other elastic/rubber object, it will break/tear/go out of shape if stretched cold. You need to be warmed up, even if it's through a warm bath.

I won't go into any more detail on flexibility and stretching as Glowing in the darknesS has done a sticky on stretching. If you would like further information, visit the sticky and learn more about the benifits and how to of stretching

I wasn't originally going to put this section in here, but I thought that I will because so many people plan to get fit to help loose weight.

To loose weight sounds simple, burn more calories then you consume on a daily basis. But this can be really hard for some people, correct that... most people! With today's life being so full on and hectic, a lot of people are eating more fast food and consuming more calories then they did 20 years ago. Our average weight is now higher then the last generation, and the one before that.

We are living a more sedentary lifestyle with our modern life of technology. We no longer have to spend hours preparing a meal, we can buy it frozen and prepared, then all we have to do is heat it up and conciously not care about the chemicals it contains. We can now order our groceries online and have them delivered to our door rather then walk around the supermarket collecting the items around there. And on top of that, driving is now something that the majority of people can do. So why walk to the corner store 400m away when we can drive? Is any one else seeing a pattern here??

So to conclude the above section, we've become a VERY lazy race! Time to do something about that.

Point number one for loosing weight - Knowing that you need to loose weight, whether it be for a healthier body, or to prevent/ease existing complications (knee problems are common for overweight people). Anything at all. But the thing to realise is that weight loss does not have to be dramatic. It could be a loss of 2 pounds or it could be 60, it all depends on your current body and what is healthy for it. So don't plan to loose weight to fit into a size or to be a stick thin (which can be equally as bad for you as obesity), loose weight to be heathy.

Number 2 - Find out where your problem area is. Ask yourself these questions:
- Are you eating healthy majority of the time (at least 80% of all your daily food consumption)?
- Are you drinking plenty of fluids (this includes water, juice and tea - water being your main consumption)?
- Are you getting adequate amounts of exercise (around 30min daily)?
- Have you been recommended to loose weight (by your family, doctor, physician or personal trainer - friends do not count in your teenage years due to peer pressure of obtaining a 'perfect' stick figure)?
- Doing a BMI test (unless you are muscular) are your results over 25?
- Doing a hip/waist ration test, are your results well over 1.0?
- Have you had a body fat percentage done, if so are you in the overweight region?
- Do you want to change, not to loose weight, but to achieve a healthy body and mind?

Number 3 - In your first week, live as you normally would and record EVERYTHING in a diary for all seven days. This includes what you eat, what you drink, how much of food and fluids you consume, how much and what exercise you do (including time, type and intensity - house work and sexual activity is included here). At the end of the week, analyse where you have a problem and when it usually occurs. It could be that you are consuming two chocolate bars a day while you are studying.
Once you have identified the area you need to work on, slowly work to change that. Substitute it with something else, or cut it out completely if it has to do with food and fluids. If it's exercise, aim to increase the amount.

Number 4 - In the second week, make the changes. Start out with small changes, drastic changes are more likely to cause relapses. If the problem is something that is influenced by a place or a time, be ready for it. If you purchase a bag of chips everyday at 4pm, don't have any money on you at that time, or sit an apple in front of you so that once the cravings hit, eat the apple instead. Changing old habits is one of the hardest things to over come.

Number 5 - The hardest part is keeping it going day to day. It is easy to relapse and hard to overcome that. But have lots of determination, keep inspirational notes and goals displayed every where you go (toilet, fridge, bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, car, lunch box etc) and get yourself a support group. Whether it be a group of friends or family to help keep you motivated or be it someone who shares similar goals to you. Keep in contact very often to talk about what you are doing well with and what you are struggling with. The key here is to find something that really motivates you and hang on to it.

Now, on to the fitness side of weight loss:

Any physical activity can contribute to weight loss, it's just that some activities burn more calories then other, some cause increases in muscle mass and not too much of a reduction in body fat. The rest just help your body to relax to achieve a healthier mind then to promote fat loss.

So choose an activity you enjoy. The more you enjoy it, the more likely you are to keep it up. If you hate running, then obviously, don't run to loose weight. You will not keep it up and you will be reluctant to start it.

ALWAYS have a backup plan for your activities. If your exercise is going for a walk around the block a few times and it's pouring down rain, I don't know many people who would actually go outside and still do that walk. Have fitness videos or really just anything you could do inside or under cover, even if it's skipping. Skipping is a very good exercise to get your heart rate up. You could even buy yourself a punching bag and hang it up in the garage, then at times of stress, belt up the bag for 10-20 minutes, it really works up a sweat and they're not too expensive either (for vinal bags that is - leather and double stitched are best but more expensive).

Do a group activity, you are more likely to go as you will be letting down the group if you don't go. If you do everything alone, you are only letting down yourself and it's a lot easier to do that.

So pretty much, the main thing to gather from this section is to eat healthy and exercise lots. The more exercise you do, the quicker you will loose weight. So if you are someone who never exercises, aim to do something 3 times a week for 20 minutes, over the weeks, increase the time of the activities and the amount. Work up to a minimum of 6-7 days of 30 minutes of fitness work (have one full day of rest if you need it each week)

FITNESS PROGRAMS

So after reading all the information and deciding to make the life changing decision of getting fit, it's now time to create a fitness program for yourself...

They're not as hard as they may seem to be, but it does take a bit of work with finding out when is your best time for working out (morning, afternoon, evening, night) and also working it around things like school, work and social events. BUt once you get the hang of it, it's fairly easy.

1. Make yourself a table (microsoft excel is excellent for this).

2. Have 8 rows and a column for every hour (or half hour) of your day, plus an extra for listing the days of the week.

3. Write in the days of the week in the first column and the times across the top row (the time you wake up to the time you usually go to sleep)

4. Now put in what you do every week - times you are at school, times you are at work, extracurricular commitments, social, sport, guides/scouts etc. Anything you do on a very regular basis

5. Next put in times like studying hours, waking/sleeping times, shower, dinner, breakfast, when you walk to school/leave for school etc to get a good indication of what hours you have avaliable to commit to your exercise regime

6. Once you have this table all created, work out when you have time to exercise. If you find that you don't have any time at all, wake up an hour earlier and go for a walk for 30-60 minutes. Pretty much make time for it if you don't have any. Even if it's walking to school/work instead of getting a lift there.

7. Choose what exercise you will do, whether it's swimming, cycling, running or anything at all, as long as it is primarily cardio work (if you are planning on getting fit or loosing weight). But try to have a variety, say if you love swimming and running, there is no reason why you can not do both.

8. Add in things like weight training sessions, even if it's only pushups and situps each morning or night. The more muscle you have in your body, the more fat you will burn. But don't overdo it on the amount of exercise, maybe start off with 3 days a week and gradually build up to 5-7 days a week with an increase in intensity and time.

9. Finally, it may take a few weeks to actually find times that will suit you to start off with, like you may decide to go for a run 3 mornings a week, but the following week after doing nothing, you realise that this is not a good time for you. Just fiddle around with it until you get the hang of it.

EG. (In a table form though)

Monday:

7am - wake up
7:30 - shower
8am - leave for school
9am - school
4pm - return from school
8pm - dinner
9pm - study
11pm - bed

There is 4 hours to spare betweem 4pm and 8pm - plenty of time for some exercise in there on Monday's

reserved

yet another...

Noooooo, for the "lift light/high reps" myth. "Tone" is one of the worst words in the fitness world lingo.

I agree with everything else though.

Like you said, the thing to remember with weights is that you may see a gain on the scale but a loss of flabby fat. Inches lost are a better measure. Full body submersion is the only really accurate test of body fat but like you said their are calliper tests and there are many scales that will measure body fat by small electronic pulses through your feet, up your body, and back again. The time it takes is how they estimate fat compared to muscle, bone, and water. Even though the last two aren't accurate like the first they still measure loss/gain and as long as you have around the same hydration level during each test that's all that really matter. Like how even if your scale isn't spot on it still shows the differences in your weight.

Exercise RX's weight training myths (scroll down)

stumptous women and weight myths

female muscle comm on livejournal (Don't let the icon of the super buff woman scare you off)

If you ever look at your muscles and say, "You know, I like how my body looks and how I feel." That's when you continue with weights that are less challenging while still lifting several times a week to maintain.

99.9% of women lifting "natural" (no drugs and junk) simply can't "bulk" like men because we lack the higher levels of testosterone and other male hormones. Lifting a weight we reach temporary muscle fatigue in 8-10 reps is going to show the results and build beautiful scultped muscles that help burn fat just when you're sitting on your a**.

For myself, I lift seriously but my calories and cardio are tailored for fat loss first, you have too eat a higher amount of calories than you do for the calorie deficiency (more out than in) you need for fat loss. I make sure I get plenty of lean proteins and my homemade protein shake is under 300 calories (and has fiber as well) to feed my muscles so they can repair themselves.

Start Slow, Go Hard is my motto.

But, certainly if you totally freak yourself out by the idea of lifting challenging weights than some weight training is better than nothing. Comfort level will make you more likely to continue and if you get more confident you may want to ramp up your program. ^^