Q&A for How to Create a Personal Fitness Plan

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  • Question
    How do I get fit?
    Francisco Gomez
    Fitness Coach
    Francisco Gomez is the Head Coach at the FIT Potato Gym, a training gym established in 2001 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Francisco is a former competitive runner who helps endurance athletes train for major marathons like the Boston Marathon. Francisco specializes in Injury Rehab, Flexibility, Marathon Training, and Senior Fitness. He has a B.S. in Nutrition and Exercise Physiology & Running.
    Fitness Coach
    Expert Answer
    Start with a shorter workout and build on it. Gradually build up to your desired length and intensity to help you get fit.
  • Question
    How do you set fitness goals?
    Francisco Gomez
    Fitness Coach
    Francisco Gomez is the Head Coach at the FIT Potato Gym, a training gym established in 2001 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Francisco is a former competitive runner who helps endurance athletes train for major marathons like the Boston Marathon. Francisco specializes in Injury Rehab, Flexibility, Marathon Training, and Senior Fitness. He has a B.S. in Nutrition and Exercise Physiology & Running.
    Fitness Coach
    Expert Answer
    Be specific about what you really want to do. For example, you might want to run for 30 minutes straight, lift a certain amount of weight, or complete a race. Don't set vague goals like, "exercise more" or "run longer."
  • Question
    How do you become flexible?
    Michele Dolan
    Certified Fitness Trainer
    Michele Dolan is a Fitness Trainer based in Sidney, British Columbia. She has been a personal trainer and fitness instructor since 2002, and was certified as a Personal Trainer by the British Columbia Recreation and Parks Association (BCRPA). Michele is also a Registered Clinical Counselor, and uses her 20+ years of fitness coaching experience to help clients understand their mind-body connection. She is a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) and Certified Clinical Counsellor (CCC), certified by the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors and the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. In her work, Michele uses the tools of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectic Behavior Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. She practices and teaches mindfulness and acceptance in all of her coaching work. She holds a Master’s Degree in Counselling Psychology.
    Certified Fitness Trainer
    Expert Answer
    You can gain flexibility by stretching. You can try the stretches in this article to improve your flexibility.
  • Question
    How can I set up an exercise calendar?
    Michele Dolan
    Certified Fitness Trainer
    Michele Dolan is a Fitness Trainer based in Sidney, British Columbia. She has been a personal trainer and fitness instructor since 2002, and was certified as a Personal Trainer by the British Columbia Recreation and Parks Association (BCRPA). Michele is also a Registered Clinical Counselor, and uses her 20+ years of fitness coaching experience to help clients understand their mind-body connection. She is a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) and Certified Clinical Counsellor (CCC), certified by the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors and the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. In her work, Michele uses the tools of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectic Behavior Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. She practices and teaches mindfulness and acceptance in all of her coaching work. She holds a Master’s Degree in Counselling Psychology.
    Certified Fitness Trainer
    Expert Answer
    Identify the blocks of time you can set aside for exercise. Schedule in those time blocks the 150 minutes minimum total cardio sessions per week, plus two to three 20–30 minute sessions of resistance training. Resistance training can be added before or after cardio. Add you flexibility program of stretches to the end of all cardio and resistance training sessions or set aside a block of time on one or two days for yoga.
  • Question
    Why shouldn't I push myself too hard?
    Community Answer
    Overexerting yourself may result in sickness, death or hospitalization in worst case scenarios. Best case would be a simple burn-out. A burn-out is when you get to a psychological state where you'd rather chew your arm off than work out again. Of course that leads to not working out or working out anyway; which can lead to further burn-out. Double burn-out can lead to a nervous breakdown and psychiatric problems.
  • Question
    What type of exercise do I do to work out my leg muscles?
    Community Answer
    Benches, squats, calf raisers, lunges and running. For better results, wear weight on your ankles.
  • Question
    How can I make my legs look and feel more muscular?
    Ironwill
    Community Answer
    You can perform squats and lunges with our own body weight or with free weights. Also, you can do cycling, mountain biking and running to get and keep your legs in shape.
  • Question
    Why should I exercise?
    Community Answer
    There are many reasons to exercise: to keep your body in shape; to feel more energetic; to boost your mood; to build muscle; to get leaner; or to weight.
  • Question
    How can I squeeze exercise into every day life?
    Community Answer
    Even 30 minutes to an hour a day is plenty for exercise. Lay out your schedule on paper and try to carve out a chunk of time each day for a run or some weightlifting. It will take some time to fully adjust to your new schedule, but be patient and stick with it.
  • Question
    What exercise helps with upper body fat?
    Owen Su
    Community Answer
    Body fat is universal; doing crunches won't take away belly fat, and doing push ups won't take away arm fat. Just focus on losing fat in general.
  • Question
    What if I was doing different ones than these?
    Community Answer
    Then that's fine. That's why it's called a "personal" fitness plan. Every person has different fitness goals. One person may want to lose weight while another person wants to build muscle.
  • Question
    It is a simple way to evaluate your cardio-respiratory endurance?
    Community Answer
    There are many tests that can be used to test cardio-respiratory endurance such as the beep test and yo-yo test. There are fitness norms online that can be used as a guide to tell you how fit you are.
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