Fitness can take many forms, and it can be easier than you think to start a fitness routine and stick to it. Follow these fitness tips to stay motivated.

Grow your own garden. It is not a simple task to start up a garden, it does take some effort. It requires digging, weeding, and a great deal of squatting down in the dirt. If you do not enjoy gardening, there are a wide variety of other things that can be done at your own home to remain in good physical condition.

A good tip to keeping in good shape is joining a health club and when you do, pay for a few months upfront. Ideally, you’ll get to the gym more often in order to keep your investment from going to waste. Of course, this is something you should do primarily if you have issues committing to a specific location.

Walking is a great exercise for increasing fitness. Walk heel to toe by pushing off with your heel first and your toes last, to increase the effort being put out by your calves. Give your arms a workout too by power walking (bending elbows and swinging arms as you walk.)

If you are lacking in motivation regarding your fitness, set some goals! They keep you extremely focused on overcoming the obstacles that hold you back instead of highlighting how difficult the task is. Setting goals gives you a way to feel personally responsible for trying to meet those goals rather than giving up.

You should not lift weights for more than an hour at a time. After an hour your muscles will begin to suffer from severe fatigue. Make sure that your weight lifting routine lasts no longer than one hour.

Depending on your ultimate goal, the frequency of your strength training will vary. If you desire to bulk up, you should not do a large volume of sessions. Ripped, clearly defined muscles will require more frequent trips to the gym.

Rewards are a great way to motivate yourself. Something as simple as new workout clothes might be enough to keep you on track in your exercise program. A reward will give you motivation and help you show it off at the gym.

When you are cycling, you will want to aim to maintain your pace between 80 and 110 rpm. This will promote less knee strain, as well as fatigue while allowing you to ride farther and faster. You can calculate rotations per minute by counting how many times one of your legs comes up in a ten second period and multiply it by six. You should strive to be at this level.

If your fitness routine includes a set number of repetitions, try counting down from that number instead of counting up from zero. This keeps you motivated as you are more easily able to visualize the end.

Always make sure you are wearing shoes that are comfortable and fit your feet. Since your feet get a bit larger throughout the day, the evening is the best time to shop for shoes. There needs to be at least a half inch between your big toe and the shoe. Your toes should have room to move around.

Don’t focus exclusively on crunches to work out your abdominal muscles. A university study found that even if you do a quarter million crunches, you’ll only burn a pound of fat. Simply performing crunches is not as effective as a more comprehensive program. Find other, more strenuous ways, to work those abdominal muscles.

Make sure not to take weekends off from your exercise routine. The weekends are not a time to get lazy and eat unhealthy. Your fitness program should be implemented every day during the week for maximum results. Skipping the weekend or, worse, binging all weekend, just erases all the work you did all week.

Get your fitness routine off on the right foot with these tips. You have to make fitness a part of your daily life. Eating healthily and staying fit gives your body more energy, and helps you to better cope with life’s problems.