When you want a successful women’s fitness program, the first thing you must do is plan your workout. It must fit into your lifestyle if it is ever going to work for you. It can’t just happen on its own; you are one who must make it work and the only way to ensure that is to make a plan for your workout.

If you plan to go to the gym or play tennis three times a week, you must record it on your calendar, arrange for a time that you will do your activity and then plan the rest of your schedule around your workout. Now, that may be different than anything you have ever done. Planning your schedule around your workout. But if you want to be successful and make women’s fitness a permanent part of your life, then you have to make it as important as going to work. You must be committed, dedicated and believe that this is something that is vital to your health and longevity.

When planning your workout, be sure to challenge your skills by setting goals for yourself. You can make short term goals like adding more reps or sets and you can make longer term goals for more intense training like adding circuits.

The important thing is to make a plan, and one way to help you make and keep that plan of action is to keep a fitness journal. Journaling helps to bring about positive changes in your life by making you accountable for everything you eat and drink and the amount of energy expended to burn calories and fat.

After a long hard day, going to the gym might be the last thing you want to do. This is why planning your workout is so important, especially if your goal is to lose weight and get in shape. For many of us, losing weight and staying fit lifestyle changes that we want to make permanently. Planning your workout in advance is one way of ensuring that you stick with these goals.

Record your plan in writing and make several copies. Attach one to the refrigerator, put one in your purse and take another one to work with you. Like any other important activity, if you want to make exercise work for you, you must treat it with respect and make it a priority in your life. Make plans today to begin planning your workout for tomorrow, it’s that sort of commitment that will help you achieve your goals.

When it comes to losing weight, there really is no better way to effectively beat back the bulge than with jogging or running. Nearly 60 percent of all people that start running do so to take off the pounds, but running can also provide even more health benefits than just weight loss.

Running can be the proverbial fountain of youth for our bones and muscles. It helps prevent bone and muscle loss that occurs naturally as we age, and helps strengthen our legs, hips, and feet. Most of us spend countless hours in front of a computer at work, but by adding running into our daily routines, we can help offset the damage we do by leading such sedentary lifestyles.

Running can also do wonders for our organs and vital body systems. It makes you hearts stronger and increases the capacity of your circulation and respiratory system. It helps increase your metabolism and speeds up your digestive system and can even help clear up digestive problems. Running can help fight off diseases such as breast cancer and it reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes by lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

So, are you getting the picture? Running is great for your body. But the health benefits don’t stop there.

Running has been proven to also play an essential role in mental health. People who suffer from depression can find great relief from the benefits of running. It provides a huge release of endorphins that can help bring forth a positive attitude, and it also helps to build character and confidence like few sports can. People who run have also found that it helps alleviate the stresses of everyday life.

While running can provide vast health benefits to both body and mind, it’s still one of the hardest forms of exercise to begin. Most people dread the prospect of running, or they injure themselves because they didn’t properly stretch.

To begin a running program, you first should treat it as your time to get away from the daily stresses of your life. It’s a time you should look forward to, where you can challenge yourself to become stronger and faster.

Start with a good pair of running shoes and always remember to properly warm up and stretch before you run. If you’re not used to exercise, then it’s better to start off slow and build up as you go. By starting a running program, you’ll soon experience some of the many extraordinary health benefits that can come from simply putting one foot in front of the other.

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Ever notice how good it feels to take a walk after a big meal? Do you ever get the desire to get out and be active after having been cooped up in the house because of a snowstorm or a rainy spell? Have you ever found emotional or mental release by taking a walk or riding a bike to lift your spirits? Why do we have these urges? Because our bodies were engineered to be active. Physical activity is good for the body, mind and soul.

Our bodies are designed to move! We need to keep moving throughout our lives in order to maintain not only healthy muscles but to keep all of our internal systems in tip top shape as well.

In order for all of our bodily mechanisms to work, we have to keep the gears moving. Otherwise our muscles become lax and withered and in turn, our bones suffer the consequences. For instance, when core muscles in the body are not exercised and developed, more stress and strain is put on the back and spine. The same for the knee. Knee injuries that develop into arthritis can be helped dramatically by strengthening the muscles that surround the knee.

We all know that a healthy heart is essential to living well. Daily activity has been proven to strengthen the heart muscles and alleviate stress by helping the body to produce endorphins.

Moving your body helps to eliminate acid build-up which is not only responsible for stomach upset, but can be a main culprit in pain in other parts of the body as well.

There are so many benefits to staying active. Just as well, there are serious side effects that can develop when a person chooses a sedentary lifestyle devoid of exercise and activity. Don’t wait for these ailments to steal your zest in life. Go out there and get moving.

Give it at least 30 days, that’s how long it takes to make it a habit. Be sure to keep a journal of your progress. After this initial period, you will begin to see some results. Don’t stop now, you’ve worked too hard to give in. Challenge yourself to keep it going for 30 more days and then 30 more. Once you have completed 90 days, physical activity will become part of your healthy lifestyle.

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You’ve probably heard that you should stretch before and after exercising And you may even be thinking that stretching takes too much time. But by not giving your muscles time to stretch you could be setting yourself up for injury.

Stretching before exercising helps to warm your muscles and keeps them flexible throughout your workout.

When you exercise, your muscles naturally respond by tightening, causing your joints to feel stiff. Once the stiffness sets in, it becomes difficult to exercise or even move about. But don’t sit still and wait for the discomfort to go away. The secret is to stretch your muscles before and immediately after an exercise routine or activity.

Stretching after a workout helps to speed the removal of toxins and waste, reducing the muscle soreness that is sometimes experienced after exercising. It helps the blood flow through your muscles for better flexibility.

Relieve stress and alleviate back pain by gently stretching the muscles in your torso, neck and shoulders. Stretch the muscles in your feet prior to walking to reduce heel pain.

So, whether you need to relax, going for a power walk or just completed a resistance-training workout … be sure to stretch, stretch, stretch to provide flexibility and maintain healthy muscles and joints. I can’t say this enough. So please, stretch¬–I don’t want you to get hurt.

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