The best way to achieve your fitness and wellness goals is to arm yourself with the best information you can find. After all, this is your body we’re talking about, and the wrong advice could seriously put your wellbeing at risk. Therefore, we’ve asked some of the top health and fitness pros around to share their best tips, mantras, and motivation secrets to help you reach your fitness potential.
1. Start Your Day Right: ‘Has your busy schedule taken over your workout routine? Fit in fitness first thing,’ says Elizabeth Burwell Hendrix, co-owner of High Performance NYC training facility in Manhattan. ‘Research shows that people who work out first thing in the morning work out more often. Why? Because you’re less likely to make excuses when you get it done before something else can get in your way.’
2. Meditate: Jennifer Galardi, owner of LivWhole in New York City, recommends, ‘Learn how to incorporate meditation into your daily routine, no matter how brief. So much of our suffering, pain, insecurities, and struggles are caused by a disconnection with ourselves and our source. Meditation costs nothing, requires nothing, and can be done anywhere. In order to change your body, you need to change your mind and the way it is hardwired.’
3. Forget about Fat Burning: ‘Stop worrying about the exact percentage of fat you burn during exercise (i.e. staying in the “fat burning” zone),’ instructs JC Santana, owner of the Institute of Human Performance (IHP) in Boca Raton. ‘Instead, focus on the total calories burned from fat (which include the calories you burn after an intense strength session). To burn more fat over a 24-hour period (and not to mention, get in great shape), go as hard as you can, as long as you can.’
4. Find that Fitness Feeling: Michele Olson, PhD, professor of exercise science at Auburn University Montgomery and creator of the Perfect Legs, Glutes & Abs DVD, advises, ‘Instead of only looking to the scale and the mirror for feedback, focus first and foremost on how exercise makes you feel—more energetic, healthier, and less stressed. Cosmetic changes will naturally occur if you seek out and adopt a fitness plan that you enjoy and take to heart.’
5. Love What You Do: According to Liz Neporent, a spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise and author of the fourth edition of Fitness for Dummies, you need to keep trying new things until you reach the fitness routine of your dreams. ‘If you try something and it doesn’t work, try something else,’ she says. ‘If you’re injured, switch gears and focus on another aspect of your fitness until you heal. Never stop searching for the right workout and schedule until you create exactly what works for you. When you find it, don’t be swayed by fads, the opinion of others or even the experts. Doing what you love is the surest way to ensure you will be fit for life.’
6. Practise Parkinson’s Law: ‘Parkinson’s Law states that the perceived complexity of a task expands to fill the time you allot it,’ explains John Romaniello, a New York City based coach, writer, and owner of Roman Fitness System. ‘So if you don’t set hard deadlines and timelines, you’re not going to be as focused or productive as you could be. Instead of wasting time at the gym, create hard deadlines for your workouts: estimate how long your session should take and enforce that you finish in that amount of time or less. Create a negative consequence for not sticking to it. Once you begin to create and enforce deadlines, the BS gets toned down and the results increase dramatically.’
