Changing the habits of a lifetime involve hard work and commitment if you expect to see any real and lasting results.
It’s important that you use the correct combination of these two things. Here are some simple rules to follow to avoid common mistakes often made by those who charge in and try to make drastic changes too quickly. This article has been written with some easy exercise in mind, for example stepping it out on a treadmill either at your local gym of one that you have in your home.

Training too long is not going to give you better results. You shouldn’t be putting more than 60 to 75 minutes in at the gym. There is a fine line between an intense workout and overdoing it. Just because a 30 minute workout brings good results doesn’t mean doubling it will give twice the results. It will result in sore and tired muscles, which can hinder your progress. You could try some alternate exercise while on the treadmill, just to keep the process interesting…

Not training hard enough can be just as ineffective as overtraining. In order for your muscles to develop, they need stimulation and stimulation comes from pushing them to the point where they can’t do any more repetitions.

Watch your diet. The old myth about eating everything in sight to beef up your body really is just a myth. The key is to eat a well balanced nutritional diet at all times.

Get plenty of rest. If you expect your body to perform for you, it needs to be fully rested and ready to go to work. The right amount of sleep for the average person is at least 8 hours. If you are starting to do that extra bit of exercise and training, you may well need a little more sleep on occasion.

Stick to your basic routine. It takes time for your body to adjust to the change in exercise types and intensity. You should not “jump the gun” to bigger exercises without getting the basics out of the way.

Stay motivated. While it may be easy to become frustrated when you’re not getting the results you want in the time you’d hoped, losing motivation will only slow you down more. Know what you want and be willing to work for it.

Set goals with timelines. It’s so easy to allow ourselves to fall into a comfortable routine. Routines are great, but with all exercise routines, you need to have goals so you have something to work towards. Each time you advance to a new exercise, you should have a certain goal in mind.

Always be competitive. This doesn’t mean that you should strive to be the best in the gym, or break the records in your mind from when you were much younger, but a good competition will keep you motivated while providing you with goals. Even if it’s just yourself you’re competing with, you need competition.

Don’t skip workouts. You need to be consistent with your exercise routines. Everyone will skip a workout here and there, but repeated missed workouts will hurt you mentally as well as physically.

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Keep a written record of what you are doing. It does not need to be in great detail, but will be great to maintain the motivation in months to come when you can refer to what you were doing when you started this change of lifestyle. If your goal is to lose weight as well, keep a weekly record of your weight. Make sure you record this at the same time on the same day of each week. This will tend to average any blips in weight over time.

Follow these 10 steps and you will see that progression to improved fitness. You will feel better, and will have more motivation to continue on with your fitness goals with the fantastic added benefit of enjoy the things you love that much better.