Many of us assume that our physical fitness goals will be difficult or impossible to reach. As we have shown, you can achieve physical fitness without pain or misery. You can achieve your goals for fitness and live a healthier life by making use of the simple, easy-to-follow advice presented below.

If you are new to working out, consider purchasing a session or two with a personal trainer. Your trainer can look at your goals and needs, and design a training program that’s right for you. Take the intimidation out of the gym by getting an expert introduction the first time you go. You will be well prepared to follow your workout plan.

If you develop a plan and set goals you can stay on top of your fitness journey. Goals push you to work through your challenges rather than worrying about how hard they are. Goals encourage commitment and dedication because you can consider fitness to be a process–an ongoing one that you haven’t yet finished.

Are you short on exercise time? Make two smaller workouts by splitting your ordinary exercise routine. You don’t need to work out longer, simply split the time in half. If you normally spend 60 minutes on the treadmill, schedule half an hour of treadmill time each morning, and 30 minutes more later that night. You could also perform one workout indoors in a gym and another workout outside in the sun.

Be creative when planing your fitness regimen. There are all kinds of things you can do to get fit that don’t involve the gym. You need to stay motivated, and doing something you enjoy is a good idea, especially if you are new to fitness.

Depending on your ultimate goal, the frequency of your strength training will vary. If your target goal is bigger and bulkier, then you will actually have fewer strength sessions over time. If you work on your strength more frequently, you will get leaner but well-defined muscles.

Crunches shouldn’t be all you concentrate on when you’re working out abdominal muscles. A well-known university study found that only one pound of fat is burned after 250,000 crunches. Simply doing only crunches means that you aren’t getting as much of a workout as you need. Vary your abdominal exercises for superior results.

You will want to protect your knees, and to do this, you will want to strengthen your thighs. Torn ligaments behind the kneecap are a common injury obtained from sports and other physical activities. The best way to protect your knees is to do exercises that not only workout your quads but also your hamstrings. Leg curls and extensions are great exercises for your hamstrings and quads.

Keep a fitness diary showing what you did during your day. Record your daily work outs, and be sure you add in all the extra exercises you do each day. If you wear a pedometer, you can also record your steps each day and constantly strive to increase your count. This written record will prove invaluable in tracking your progress on your fitness journey.

You should continue exercising, even on the weekends. A lot of people think that they can take weekends off from working out, and dieting, but this is not the case. You never know what will happen during the week, so make time to schedule work outs during weekend hours, too. If you take the weekend off from weight loss and enjoy rich meals and big desserts with no exercise, you may just be back where you started come Monday morning.

If you like television, but feel guilty about it, use this tip: Whenever a commercial comes on, do some quick exercises. This way you can watch your favorite shows and work toward becoming more fit.

Take on the exercises that you normally avoid. This will get you into the mindset of doing exercises you are most likely weakest at. Eliminate your weaknesses by incorporating your most hated exercises into your regular fitness workouts.

Do your counting in reverse. Instead if counting towards the number of repetitions you do, try counting backwards from how many you wish to do. This will help make your exercise routines feel easier and quicker, because you are counting them down. Seeing your numbers dwindle down to zero is a great motivator.

Although reaching your fitness goals will take hard work, in the end it will be worth it. You will look better, feel better and have a better outlook on life when you are fit. By getting fit you can improve your productivity in other areas of life like work. This is because your whole body is functioning better, allowing you to make smarter decisions.