You’d like to start a fitness program, which style to choose?

You want to exercise but you don’t know which style is the best for you?  Of course you could do what just about everyone else does and take up jogging, but that might not get you to your goal.  The first thing you should do is figure out your “why”.  Why do you want to become physically active?  Is it for health reasons, Is it so that you’ll be around long enough to see your grandchildren finish school?  What is your “why”?  The second thing is to figure out your goal.  Is your goal to lose weight, be able to take the stairs without running out of breath, be fit enough to go on a wilderness camping trip or how about to climb Mt. Everest?

Now that you have defined your “why” and your “goal”, you need to determine your starting point.

These questions are to do with your current health status, and they do need to be taken into consideration.  Do you have any health problems, are you overweight, male or female, do you have any joint issues such as a bad back or bad knees, how about osteoarthritis?  The answer to those questions will give you an idea of what you can and cannot do at the moment.  In working with my clients I have witnessed that once physical strength and endurance improves, health problems subside.

This batch of questions will help you figure out which style of physical activity is the best for you and your goal.  You’ll probably need to think back to when you were a kid for this one.  Did you walk to school or did someone drive you, did you climb trees, ride a bicycle, play a sport?  How physically active were you?  Where you the type of kid that was fearless, you didn’t mind getting cuts and bruises or where you more cautious?  If you where the fearless type, you will probably excel at something more aggressive.  If you where the cautious type you’d probably want to start with something tamer.

Now let’s look at a few different types of physical activities.  Cardio training, combat training, momentum training, functional, strength training, sport specific training, flexibility training, balance training.  Each of these styles has its place.  The one that you choose depends on your goal and current abilities.

Here’s another big question that you’ll need to ask yourself – “what is it that you really want to accomplish?” Let’s say your big goal is to climb Mt. Everest, let’s also say that you are not very athletic however you are healthy and you do not have any joint problems.  If you could only choose two styles of physical training what would they be?  Something that you will need to know about climbing a mountain is that you’ll need lots of physical and mental strength and stamina along with great heart and lung capacity, add to that fearlessness.  Using climbing a mountain as your big goal the two choices that I would recommend are strength training and cardio training.

My question to you is, what do you want to accomplish and why do want to accomplish it?

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Brain Forsythe of EHF Executive Health And Fitness is a natural competitive bodybuilder and personal trainer with over 20 years of experience in the fitness industry