It is no secret that exercise is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. I am not going to devote any of this space to convincing you that you need to exercise when you already know that is true. My goal is to help you bridge that gap between knowing you should be exercising and actually doing it. Here are the steps that I recommend to help you take this very important step.

See Your Doctor

Before beginning a fitness routine is a great time to see your doctor. Let him or her know your plans and make sure that there are no conditions preventing you from exercising. Individuals taking medications or insulin have a particular need to discuss the effects that exercise will have on them. If you have been injured, you will want to make sure that you are completely rehabilitated before beginning an exercise program.

There are a very few people who will be completely excluded from exercising. A visit to your doctor will simply ensure that your new regimen will be doing you more good than harm.

Join a Gym

I am a big believer in “the gym”. Mainly because once you walk through the door of “the gym” you know you will exercise. It is the only thing to do there. I am not a big believer in home exercise equipment. The problem with exercising at home is that there are a lot of things to do there other than workout. I know a lot of people who own expensive treadmills, elliptical trainers, or Bowflex machines and never use them.

Even if you do have the discipline to maintain a program of regular exercise at home, the gym is most likely going to have a higher quality and greater variety of equipment. Commercial weight and aerobic machines are a lot higher quality than the typical home models. And, even if you spend thousands on a high end treadmill, you are limited to just that one mode of cardiovascular exercise. At a gym you can choose between doing your cardio workouts on a treadmill, stepper, bike, elliptical machine, rower, etc. Your workouts will be more enjoyable and more effective when you can “mix it up” as opposed to doing the same thing every time.

Choosing a Gym

Deciding on which gym or fitness center to join can be confusing. There are a lot of options. There are the big, name-brand places such as LA Fitness, Bally’s, 24 Hour Fitness, etc. Then there are your local country clubs and sports clubs. You will also find fitness centers at a lot of community colleges, community centers, and YMCAs. It is important that you choose a place that meets your individual needs.

Here are some things you should look for when choosing a gym:

• A comfortable environment. Visit a potential gym at the time you would actually be working out. Is it crowded? Would you be comfortable exercising along side the other members? Different gyms cater to different clientele. There are places where you will find body builders pumping iron while heavy metal music bounces off the walls. At the other end of the spectrum, there are facilities dominated by senior citizens. At most fitness centers you will encounter people of various ages and fitness levels. Just make sure that you can see yourself fitting into the environment of the gym you choose.

• Adequate equipment. During your visit, did it seem like there was enough exercise equipment for the number of members there at that time? If you had been there to workout, would you have had to wait for a treadmill, elliptical, etc? Did the equipment seem newer and well maintained, or were there a lot “out of order” signs? Were the equipment and the facility in general clean?

• Other features. Every gym is going to have the basic necessities for your exercise program – cardio machines, weight machines, dumbbells, etc. In addition, some places have will have swimming pools, saunas, jacuzzis, basketball and racquetball courts, juice bars, massage therapists, and more. You will need to decide which, if any of these additional features have any value to you and factor that into your decision.

• Help. When researching any particular gym, you should find out if there is any free help available to its members. In some fitness centers, including the one I work at, there are instructors on duty at all times to get you started on the right track and answer any questions you have along the way. It is not the individual attention that you would get from a personal trainer, but it is nice to know that there is someone there to ask when a question arises.

If you find that a gym does not offer free help, it does not necessarily mean you should not join. Just understand that you will need to go there with an idea of what you are doing or be willing to pay for personal training. Also, be aware that the free initial evaluation that many gyms will offer you is going to include a sales pitch for personal training packages.

Your choice of gyms will play a big part in determining the success of your exercise program. You really need to find a place whose location, price, atmosphere, facilities, and staff make you want to get through the door. Because, getting through the door of the gym is the most important step along you path to better fitness.

Schedule 3 Times a Week

Regardless of the other responsibilities that you have in your life, you need to dedicate at least three hours a week to taking care of your body – forever. Doing so will ensure that you are physically able to enjoy life to its fullest and have the energy you need to meet all of life’s challenges.

In doing your three weekly workouts, make sure that you schedule a rest day in between each of them. The resistance exercises that you do have a ‘tearing down’ effect on your muscle cells. They need rest to build back up stronger. If you find yourself with time to do additional exercise, then do an extra cardio workout on one of your ‘rest’ days.

Find a Partner

I am lucky enough to have a friend that I meet at the gym three times a week. I am more likely to stick to a regimen knowing that I am scheduled to meet someone at regular times. Also, my life is certainly not overflowing with adult conversation, so I really appreciate the social element of having a workout partner.

A good partner is someone with fitness goals that are similar to your own. You probably have a friend who also needs to add regular exercise to his or her life. It shouldn’t be too much trouble finding a partner, but if you cannot, that should not stop you from taking this life-changing course of action.

Three Components of Fitness

Although several factors go into determining the exact exercises that a given individual is going to perform, every exercise program should address three components of fitness. They are aerobic conditioning, resistance training, and flexibility training. Here is some general information on each component. Depending upon your experience, however, you may need a little or a lot of help in designing your actual workout.

Aerobic (Cardiovascular) Conditioning

Aerobic exercise (often referred to as cardiovascular exercise or ‘cardio’) is a workout for the most important muscle in your body – your heart.

Besides training the cardiopulmonary system, aerobic exercise has the added benefit of burning a relatively large number of calories and, therefore, is essential to maintaining a healthy body composition. If your main goal is to burn fat, you will want aerobic exercise to be a major part of your workout.

Activities that involve continuous rhythmic motion using major muscle groups and lasting for 20 minutes or more are considered aerobic exercise. Examples of aerobic exercises are running/jogging/walking, using elliptical trainers (sort of like jogging without the impact) or steppers, biking, rowing, and cross country skiing.

When you are at the gym and have figured out how to operate some of these cardio machines (which is usually fairly simple – many have a “quick start” button), your first question will be, “How fast should I go?” The answer is a speed that raises your heart rate to a level that is 60% to 80% of your maximum heart rate. To find your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220. Multiply that number by 60% and 80% to find a target heart rate range. Many cardio machines will tell you your heart rate while you exercise. You can also buy heart rate monitors.

Another way to determine if you are going at an appropriate speed while doing aerobic exercise is by using a rate of perceived exertion (RPE) scale. If you were asked, “On a scale of 1 to 10 how hard are you working?” and you answered 6, then your heart rate would be near 60% of your maximum. So, you would like to be working out at a level that feels somewhere between a 6 and an 8. You should be able to hold a conversation while you are exercising aerobically and you should be able to go for 20 minutes or more.

Resistance (Weight) Training

Resistance training is done to increase the strength of muscles. Increased muscle strength leads to increased bone strength, so everyone should do some resistance training even if they don’t want to become “buff”.

When you begin resistance training, you will ask, “How much weight should I be lifting?” In the beginning, you should be using a weight that you can lift between 10 and 15 times. So, if you can’t lift a weight 10 times, it is too much, and if you can lift it 15 times and keep on going, it is not enough. After doing sets of 10 to 15 repetitions for a couple of months, you might want to increase your weight and reduce your repetitions as a way to change things up.

Flexibility Training

Many people go the gym, do their cardio workout and their weight machines, and then they leave. Doing this neglects an important element of fitness – flexibility. Tight muscles, especially the hamstrings (in the back of the thigh) can be a major contributor to back pain. When older people lose mobility, it is often not simply because of a lack of strength, but also due to a lack of flexibility. So, make sure that all of your workouts end with some stretching.

Summary

Become one of those people who go to “the gym”. No matter how old you are, it’s not too late. No matter how out of shape you are, it is not a lost cause. No matter how busy you are, this is a high priority. I know that it can be intimidating, but once you get started, your life will never be the same. So, go ahead, grab the yellow pages or go online and start the process of determining where you will go when you go to “the gym”.