America is the land of opportunity. As one of the richest countries in the world, the majority of our citizens don’t have any trouble getting enough to eat. Furthermore, we get to enjoy comfortable jobs that are primarily sedentary.
However, this lifestyle can have indirect negative consequences. For example, did you know that over 71% of Americans are overweight? Of those people, more than half fall into the obesity category.
Clearly, something must change, and it all starts with diet and exercise. However, getting fit isn’t easy.
That’s why we’re going to provide you with six daily exercise tips designed to get you healthy and keep you fit. Don’t let another year pass you by without reaching your goals. Keep reading for everything you need to know.
1. Start By Defining Your Goals
First, you need to start with the basics. What are your goals? Just as importantly, why do you want to reach those goals?
Most people start exercises at home or at a gym to lose weight, feel better, have more energy, improve their physical health, and so on. These are all legitimate, worthwhile goals.
However, the “why” is what drives people to actually accomplish these goals. For example, you may want to improve your fitness to:
- Look good for your wedding
- Prepare for a beach vacation
- Live longer
- Be able to keep up with your kids or grandkids
- Feel better about yourself
- Gain the confidence to ask out your co-worker
- And more
Determine your overall goal and break it down into smaller, short-term goals. Each goal needs to be practical, measurable, achievable, and time-sensitive. This will help you stay on track while being reenergized by small victories along the path to your overall goal.
For example, if you want to lose 50-60lbs for your wedding that’s six months away, break it down into monthly weightloss goals. Each month, aim to lose 8-10lbs.
2. Consider Hiring a Personal Trainer or Fitness Coach
One of the most important daily exercise tips for good health is to know what you’re doing. The more knowledge you have about exercise, the greater your results will be. Inexperienced gym-goers often end up spinning their wheels for months because they don’t know how to get the results they want.
For this reason, we recommend hiring a personal trainer, at least for the first month or two as you’re learning the ropes. Aside from teaching you how to exercise for maximum efficiency based on your goals, a fitness coach will also help you avoid injuring yourself. This is especially important if you’re lifting weights or are completely new to the fitness arena.
If you’re working out at home, you can find personal trainers or coaches who will make house calls. Alternatively, there are plenty of online fitness coaches who utilize video streaming to help their clients workout.
3. Get a Workout Buddy
One of the best workout tips for beginners is to find someone to accompany you on your fitness journey. Workout buddies serve multiple purposes. For example:
- They reduce gym anxiety
- They increase accountability
- They provide motivation
- They add a social aspect to working out
- And more
Few people starting out truly enjoy exercising, and misery loves company. A workout buddy with similar goals can be there to suffer through workouts with you.
However, we hope that you come to enjoy exercising over time. Many people do, especially after they start seeing their first results.
4. Remember That a Good Nutrition Plan is Just as Important for Hitting Your Goals
One of the most accurate daily exercise tips is that you can’t outwork a bad diet. You can work out like a fiend every day for hours on end, but if you continue to fall back on bad eating habits, you’re not going to see the results you want. Unfortunately, this is where most people struggle.
It’s not exercising people find difficult, it’s dieting. But it’s not their fault, junk food is incredibly addictive. In fact, studies show that sugar is just as addictive as cocaine.
You don’t need an unbalanced, unhealthy, or extreme diet to lose weight or hit your fitness goals. Those things always have negative consequences. For example, people who follow extreme diets to lose a ton of weight in a short amount of time almost always gain all the weight back.
Instead, focus on eating whole foods. Ditch things like white bread, pasta, and cereal for their whole-grain counterparts. Furthermore, stop drinking sugary beverages like soda, energy drinks, juices, and commercial coffees.
Eat lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, seeds, and lean meats.
5. Make Your Exercise Routine a Top Priority
Daily exercise tips at home or at the gym are pointless without discipline. You can create the best list of goals and the perfect plan to achieve them. However, unless you are consistent in your efforts, none of that matters.
You must make your new workout and nutrition plan a top priority. Many people find it helpful to track their activity throughout the day, using the latest technology. Check out Mobile Mob to find Fitbits, Garmin, Apple, and other fitness products.
Furthermore, carve out a regimented time in your schedule each day and make working out mandatory. Getting started is always the hardest part. Once you’ve made it to the gym or started your exercises at home, it gets easier.
6. Design a Practical and Sustainable Workout Program
Finally, one of the most essential daily exercise tips is to make sure you’re creating fitness goals that are practical and sustainable. Anyone can write down things they wish they were doing, but will you actually do them? And if so, for how long?
If you hammer yourself into the ground the first week, you’ll be more likely to abandon your goals. We recommend starting slow, with short workouts every day. As you build up your strength, endurance, and discipline, you can start making your workouts harder, longer, or more intense.
Remember, the key to maintaining health is consistency. It won’t do you much good to crush your workout for a week, then take the next two weeks off. Slow and steady.
Looking for More Daily Exercise Tips and Other Lifestyle Advice?
If you want to hit your goals this year and take significant steps toward improving your health and fitness, it all starts with following the daily exercise tips listed above. But if you need a little more help, that’s okay.
For more information, advice, and home exercise tips, check out some of our other lifestyle articles. Our blog was created to be a reliable source of information for people like you.