by What is a good fitness program for me : As most people new to fitness start out by searching the Internet for workout plans that suit them best, you may find yourself searching for one online that’s tailored just to you. No single fitness training plan fits everyone; everyone starts their fitness journey at different levels with different goals in mind.
Beginning a fitness regimen can be daunting; goals may seem too broad for them to achieve effectively – losing weight, toning up, or becoming stronger are among some examples of goals often set too vaguely for success. As such, next steps on how to reach these objectives may become unclear.
Moving your body is great, but moving with purpose and planning is even better. Witnessing yourself progress towards your goals of faster/ stronger and meeting them provides motivation! Without an explicit plan in place it’s easy to lose focus or become unproductive during workouts.
So where should you begin? This article aims to clear up some common queries while helping you create an individualized program tailored specifically towards achieving YOUR goals.
Launch Your Routine
Before beginning to create a workout program, it is crucial that you first develop goals and habits to create a solid basis of consistency. According to research published in European Journal of Social Psychology (1), creating healthy habits takes an average of eight-nine weeks; approximately equivalent to two periodized workout programs (which contain various phases and cycles). Once established, these foundational practices can become lifelong routines with lasting benefits for long-term results.
S.M.A.R.T Goals
As fitness professionals, one of the first lessons we provide our clients is how to set SMART (Specific, Manageable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound) goals that set clear objectives that lead to guaranteed success. So let’s dive deeper into this topic:
Specific: Goals that you set should be specific enough that they can be met through training alone. Instead of saying, “I want to lose weight”, your specific goal could be “I want to shed 5 pounds”, “I would like to walk 2 miles each day”, or even, “I need to shed 2% body fat”. Once you set such specific targets, all training can support these aims.
Measurable: How will you know that your goal has been reached? This step involves breaking your specific goal down into quantified steps that are easily quantifiable. For example, if your aim is to lose 5 pounds then download an app like MyFitnessPal (2), begin keeping a nutrition journal or find an experienced dietician or nutrition specialist to guide your efforts and measure weight regularly to track progress.
Attainable: Your goal should be attainable and within reach, like eliminating night-time snacking if that helps towards weight loss. Setting goals like I want to lose five pounds in two weeks may not be realistic or obtainable – you may reach it, or work beyond it! Make your goal more obtainable and realistic: eliminating night-time snacking will lead you closer towards meeting this objective of weight loss.
Realistic Goals: Make sure that your fitness goals are realistic for your level, abilities, resources and other considerations. Build gradually; starting with daily and weekly goals will keep you from feeling exhausted midway through. If you haven’t exercised for some time yet, start off small so as not to feel overwhelmed or unmotivated from day one.
Time Bound: Setting time-bound exercise goals involves creating your exercise goals within an established timeline. Be realistic and achievable when setting your target completion date. In our example above: I want to lose 5 pounds within 5 weeks.
Set Up A SMART Goal For Weight Loss :
Here is an example of setting a SMART goal related to weight loss:
Specific: I would like to lose 5 pounds Measurable: Track my food, calories and macros (protein, carbs and fats). Weigh myself two times weekly.
Attainable Goal: Eliminate nighttime snacking, drink more water, and add more fruits and veggies to my plate.
Realistic goal: Eat one cheat meal per week before 7 pm.
Time Restrictions: Lose 5 Pounds in Five Weeks.
15-Minute Core Conditioning Workout You Can Do Anywhere
As a member of the M&S community, you already understand that nutrition plays an integral role in creating great-looking abs. But you also recognize the need to train them – just like any muscle group they need stimulation and challenging in order to advance and thrive.
Newcomers to this community may need help training their abs to achieve that six-pack look, and we have you covered – this workout will improve the way your core functions and looks in just 15 minutes!
This 15-minute core conditioning program requires no weights or equipment – simply find an open space and bring this with you so that you can learn and implement its workout.
What Makes a Good Ab Workout?
An effective ab workout must target all major sections and performance simultaneously, consisting of five exercises in total: the upper abs are responsible for helping us bend forward; subsequently we’ll focus on lower abs that lifts legs; finally we will wrap things up by including something for obliques so they can bend to either side and twist as we progress our workout.
Stabilization and balance, typically neglected during ab workouts, will be addressed here with our plank-centric workout. Finally, since most athletes and fitness-minded people aim for smaller waist sizes, our final exercise will focus on an old school movement to help create that goal – this movement can all be found within M&S Exercise Video Database as well. Finally, for maximum effect we are including some tips so you make the most out of every quarter-hour you commit towards this workout!
Upper Abs: Sit-Up
Sit-ups were likely one of the first exercises you learned as part of physical education class in grade school, yet their benefits remain strong today. Crunches may seem more popular because they target upper abs more directly; however, progressing beyond even those limits will enhance both looks and performance.
Sit-ups often face criticism for working the hip flexors due to having hooked feet. Lifting up toes with leverage from an anchor holding them and lifting your toes up will work the hip flexors; but as long as feet remain flat while contracting abs are the focus, hips won’t become nearly as active during these exercises.
If bodyweight alone isn’t sufficient, or you want to focus on strength training, use weight plates or weighted balls on your chest for resistance training. Or if bodyweight exercises alone is what’s desired, try holding onto one for two extra seconds while simultaneously contracting ab muscles before slowly lowering yourself back down again.
Perform 15 repetitions of each exercise before transitioning smoothly from one exercise to the next one. Transitions should go smoothly!
Lower Abs: Alternating Straight Leg Lower Abs
The classic lying leg raise is an effective way to train lower abs. Although effective, there’s another method which may also promote balance: doing one leg at a time makes this exercise more challenging while improving flexibility by forcing you to keep both feet stationary while one moves.
Make this workout even more engaging by switching legs between reps for each set – and performing 15 reps of each leg separately! In either instance, 15 repetitions per leg should suffice here.
If gaining strength is important to you, place ankle weights on both of your legs. Stop short of touching the floor with either leg to maintain tension in your core muscles.
Oblique Exercise options include side planking with hip dip and standing twist
Obliques tend to get neglected during ab training due to a common misconception: training them will make your waist bigger! But in reality, training these muscles actually will look better once leaner so you can show your abs off proudly!
Side crunches or twists would likely be easier, but your goal here is to improve yourself – so let’s challenge ourselves. A side plank helps promote stability while in an awkward position which will transfer to other aspects of fitness; hip dips provide another effective means of engaging the obliques as it requires contracting while remaining stable.
Try performing 15 reps on each side, striving not to lose balance in between each rep. If this does happen, simply return back into a plank position and keep going!
Once your hip dips are completed, do 15 standing twists in both directions immediately afterwards. Try your best to maintain stationary hips as you twist the upper body.
Stability: Plank to Hip Raise
Planking requires controlling your core and maintaining balance, but some individuals know there is an easier solution: relax their core – which defeats its intended goal! In order to get maximum benefit out of a workout like this one, give 100% effort every time!
Planking with hip raise is an effective way to remember why you are doing a plank in the first place, working the abs with performance while providing stability training for both abs and lower back muscles.
Stay in the plank position for 15 seconds before performing 15 hip raises – when finished with them all, remain planked for 15 more seconds before moving forward with life.
Control: Stomach Vacuum WATCH!
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Frank Zane are justifiably passionate about vacuums: it helps expand waist sizes while controlling breathing issues.
Your body should relax during each repetition; either lying flat on your back, standing, or both can work just fine. Whatever way you choose, aim to tighten your abdominals as though the goal were for the belly button to touch spine while at the same time forcefully exhaling through breathing out when doing this exercise and hold for five to ten seconds before relaxing before repeating for five reps.
Assembling Your Workout Together
Circuit training should be implemented into your routine to strengthen and challenge the abdominals further while burning calories at the same time. You can do it at either home or the gym and can fit it into any time you have 15 free minutes in your schedule.
At least perform two rounds of this workout; three is even better! Focus on quality reps rather than speed. Perform this twice or three times weekly until your midsection tightens up significantly more effectively!
Workouts for Women: 2 Bodyweight Circuits You Can Do at Home
These circuit workouts provide two great workouts for women who are either just beginning their fitness journey, or don’t have the time or resources available to go to a gym regularly to lift weights.
If you are just getting started with exercise, I would advise starting with the first circuit.
Take your time when performing this circuit; remembering that its purpose is to build strength gradually from exercise to exercise while understanding your capabilities and being mindful of each exercise’s effects on you personally.
Once you have completed a round from either circuit, rest for between 0-90 seconds before beginning again.
When performing this program, I recommend giving yourself at least one day off between each workout session. You should perform one of the two circuits three to four times each week.
How to Achieve Success with Circuits
Every workout, aim to add one rep per exercise for all three rounds. When you reach 15 reps per exercise in all three rounds, add another round and drop back down to 10 reps per exercise; repeat. When you can manage this routine six times with 15 reps each exercise on circuit 2, move onto circuit 2 and continue growing this way.
The second circuit can serve both as an intermediate step towards circuit 2 (if progressing from circuit 1) and interchangeably with it depending on your experience level (i.e. if trying circuit 1 is too easy), circuit 1 could be done one day and circuit 2 on another until you feel ready to tackle both circuits for every workout day.
Once you can successfully complete six rounds of 15 reps for each exercise on circuit 2, it may be time to join a gym or find more challenging callisthenic workout programs to do from home.
Body Blaster: Full Body Fat Loss Workout (No Equipment Necessary)
Most people associate losing weight with going to a gym and spending hours on cardio machines and/or lifting heavy weights; but there are other effective strategies available that can help people burn calories, shed pounds and become stronger.
As it happens, you already possess two essential requirements to get this done: your body and space. Finding an outdoor spot where one can move and exercise should not be an issue – for this program to work out well it only needs you, space, and six weeks!
Bodyweight Training
Let’s pause a second and consider training with just your own weight as part of being physically fit. After all, part of being healthy means using your own body for whatever tasks or goals arise in daily life; so training solely with bodyweight could prove valuable and worthwhile endeavor.
Bodyweight exercises provide other advantages such as overall function enhancement, providing safer movement for joints and tendons, and being available any time and any place imaginable – ideal if traveling. Here is another set of bodyweight workouts you might enjoy doing at any point during the day:
This program may not isolate brachialis or teres major, or other body parts you can train with equipment, but you can still incorporate this regimen as part of a greater overall transformation plan. Substituting it instead of 45 minutes on an elliptical could be particularly effective!
The Exercises
These exercises have been selected to target specific body areas while keeping you moving and burning calories. We’ll briefly go over each exercise here but for further assistance or information please check out the M&S Exercise Video Database.
Sprints: Nothing beats running as fast as possible to test yourself physically and mentally, which is why sprints feature so heavily here. Running as quickly as possible requires little preparation yet can yield impressive results, which makes this practice essential. A football field would provide ideal training conditions; otherwise use what space available. Pay special attention to technique – eyes forward, chin up, arms moving to sides and tight core all matter in this type of exercise!
Burpees: Burpees have long been used as part of functional fitness competition. That is because this exercise works. Going into a squat position and then moving onto kickback stance kicking feet back completing one pushup and performing two jumps is sure to challenge all aspects of physical fitness and make leaner results. By performing multiple repetitions your heart rate and body temperature increase rapidly; which you need in order to see results!
Squat Jumps: Make sure that you start by standing in an even surface, wearing proper footwear, and then performing these jumps on an uneven area. Your goal should be simple: Squat down, jump as high as you can while landing with feet as even as possible and reset. Do the best you can until your thighs reach parallel with the floor – your goal should be jumping higher as your weight decreases!
Walking Lunges: Focused Walking Lunges will target your glutes, hamstrings and core. Don’t aim for speed when doing these lunges; rather focus on getting as low as safely possible with each step until reaching the top and then switch legs if necessary. Remember to breathe in as you go down and out when coming up; keeping hands on hips for balance purposes as needed while looking straight ahead; if there isn’t enough space, reverse direction while continuing counting steps back up! If this becomes impossible do the opposite direction while continuing counting until reaching that top step before switching legs if necessary or go in both ways at once before reaching it for balance purposes!
Frog Sit-Up: Although primarily an abdominal exercise, Frog Sit-Up serves two functions. First, it allows your mind to slow down and catch its breath; secondly, it helps strengthen core muscle groups for improved appearance and health benefits.
Pushups: Pushups are one of the premier bodyweight exercises for upper-body fitness, engaging the chest, shoulders, triceps and keeping your back straight all simultaneously. Don’t rush through pushups at an unnaturally quick rate: Pause at both the bottom and top before continuing; this forces muscles to work harder while providing oxygen intake that’s so vitally necessary to maintaining health and vitality.
Mountain Climbers: Hold on tight as we switch focus onto lower body strengthening exercises – now is when speed and consistency really count, keeping those feet moving back and forth as long as you possibly can! If necessary, take a knee, count to five, and pause briefly – it won’t affect performance either way!
Arm Circles: Doing arm circles standing still would not do much, so I suggest walking while doing them – covering an appropriate distance and back while continuing your circles. We could work on both fat loss and coordination at once!
Shadow Boxing: Shadow boxing is the final exercise. Here, you are put into an imaginary ring against an imagined opponent with only limited time left for you to knock them out with concentrated and precise strikes that aim at taking their head off when throwing punches – no jabs allowed here; combos of hooks and upper cuts work better instead.
