Rebuild Your Body
1. Write down your primary goal. Be specific: Whether you want to lose 20 pounds of fat, gain 10 pounds of muscle, or complete your first triathlon, give yourself one major objective for 2006 and put it on paper.
2. Schedule your first three workouts. Plan the date, time, and place of each session in Outlook or your day planner. You'll be less likely to allow meetings or social events to interfere with your workouts. Be sure to block off a big enough chunk to account for any time needed to change your clothes, shower, or travel to the gym -- the forgotten factors that doom workouts.
3. Create a workout log. Provide space to record the number of sets and repetitions and the amounts of weight you use, as well as the duration and distance of your cardio session, and your total exercise time. This will give you tangible numbers to improve on with each workout.
4. "Most men do the exercises they like first and save the ones they know they hate for last," says Steve Lischin, NASM-C.P.T. "Toward the end of a workout, they either put little effort into these exercises or just skip them entirely." Performing your workout in the opposite order can give muscles you tend to overlook (such as your hamstrings) the attention they deserve. And saving your favorites for last can help you recharge when your energy level is in decline.
5. Struggling to do one more crunch? Skip it. "I'd rather see you do 20 good reps than 30 crappy ones," says Shawn Arent, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., an exercise scientist at Rutgers University. Your abs, like any other muscle, grow in response to increased stress, not continual stress. Instead, do them well. Three keys to the proper crunch: Focus on lifting your shoulder blades off the floor, not pulling your head up with your hands. Pause at the top of the move and lower your body slowly. Keep your abs tight throughout the exercise.
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