Do you believe that exercise has to be hard to be effective? In the SFL Total transformation Challenge, we teach you the best way to make exercise part of your lifestyle. 

Here is a sneak peak at some of the information you will receive. 

How many times have you started an exercise program, only to stop at some point?  Maybe work interfered, the kids got sick, you twisted an ankle or went on vacation and got out of the habit of exercising.  Whatever the reason, you can enjoy success with your exercise program by keeping a few simple tips in mind.

The key to having success with an exercise program is consistency.  Missing a workout or two once in a while is normal.  In the big scheme, a missed workout or two means little.  Think long term. The big picture is how consistent you are over a long period of time, not how many workouts you missed in a week or month.

Now that does not mean that you should skip every other workout and be consistent. On average you will need to exercise at least 3-5 times every week to enhance your health, performance or improve your body composition.  Here are some tips that will help you maintain a regular exercise program.

1. Start  slowly – Be realistic when you start an exercise program. If you think that you are going to go from being a person who has not exercised since eighth grade gym class to someone who exercises for three hours every day and maintain that schedule, you are probably fooling yourself. You will be better off with a more realistic approach to exercise.  Starting out with 15 minutes of exercise three days a week will give you a better chance of success than trying to maintain a schedule of several hours a day every day of your life.

2. Establish the Habit – Exercise is a habit and habits take a long time to form.  A good strategy to help you develop the habit of exercise is to plan your exercise into your daily calendar. Treat your workout as another appointment in your schedule just as you would schedule an appointment with your doctor. Plan a time each day when you will exercise. This takes the stress out of trying to fit your workout around your other daily activities. The more fit you become, the better you will feel and the more productive you will be with your family or career. We cannot emphasize enough that regular practice will impact your success more than any specific training program. Consistent practice produces results.

3. Have Fun – Pick an activity that you enjoy when starting an exercise program. Doing something that you enjoy increases the likelihood that you will actually keep to your exercise routine. 

4. Rest when tired – The point of an exercise program is not to work until you are exhausted. Despite the message that we see on reality television shows, moderate exercise improves our health and how we look and feel.

5. Set realistic goals – Remember that it took a long time to get out of shape. Years of training to be an inactive couch potato will not be reversed in a few weeks. The promise of six-minute abs ranks right up there with winning the lottery.  Fitness is a lifelong pursuit that takes time and energy. Small steps over a long period of time will produce the best results. Take your time and enjoy the process.  

6. Build Muscle – Muscle helps us move and burn calories even while we are at rest. Strengthening our muscles, strengthens our bones and improves our balance. Muscles take up less space than fat in the body giving us a toned or fit shape.
7. Burn Calories – Aerobic or cardiovascular exercise is important for the health of our heart, lungs and blood vessels. Cardio exercise burns calories and can help with maintaining our weight. But Don’t overly rely on cardio or any one type of exercise for that matter. If you are looking to lose weight, cardio can help burn calories but does not significantly increase your metabolic rate or the amount of calories that your body burns at rest.    

If you enjoy cardio or want some extra activity to boost fat loss or improve your health, you can’t go wrong with going for a walk most days of the week, or on days you don’t strength train.

8. Give Muscles Time Off – Your body needs time to rest in order to recover properly and get stronger. For basic health and fitness, you will need to do some activity on most days of the week. A good rule of thumb is 2-3 days of some type of aerobic exercise such as walking or riding a bike for 30 to 60 minutes and 2-3 days of training with weights for 20-30 minutes. If you are not able to do this amount of exercise at first, start with less and increase gradually. Where you start with your exercise program is not as important as being consistent and improving over time.

9. Move in Many Ways – The more ways you move, the better. The body is made to move. Incorporate as many movement patterns as possible into your workouts. Include squats, lunges, push, pull, hinge and twist movements for the best results.

10. Increase Intensity Over Time – You do not have to start your exercise program by running marathons or lifting heavy weights or joining a high intensity exercise program at a gym. In fact, these are sure-fire ways to guarantee that you will not become a lifelong exerciser and will probably get injured. Start slowly with something that you can do consistently and add time and intensity as you become more fit.
11. Focus on Getting Stronger and Improving Your Performance – This is important. By focusing on strength and improving your performance, your body will continue to change and you will see results. Shift the focus from burning calories to increasing muscle.

Focus on what you can do and make it a goal to get better, slowly and consistently. This can be accomplished by adding more weight to exercises, performing more reps with the same exercise, using a more challenging variation, or decreasing rest periods between exercises.  

12. Emphasize Form, Not Weight – Pay attention to your form when you lift weights or run or perform any activity. Start with good posture on all exercises. Proper form reduces the chances of injury and lays the foundation for peak performance.

13. Enjoy the Process – Fitness is a process. Do not be in a rush to reach your goals. Aim for steady progress over time. Enjoy each step of the way.  

If you are tired of the diet roller-coaster and want to finally be healthy, email me at Jim@Strengthforlife.us to see if the Strength for Life Total Transformation Program is for you.

Here’s what you will get with the Total Transformation Program:

• 8 Interactive Presentations on Nutrition, Fitness, and Healthy behaviors
• 8 Small Group Personal Training Classes
• Unlimited access to our small group fitness classes
• Recipes and Food Logs
• Newsletter with Fitness and Nutrition Tips
• Goal Setting

If you are ready for your new life, email me at Jim@Strengthforlife.us to get started.

Who am I?

I am Jim Gallagher, the co-owner of Strength for Life, a personal training studio in Springfield, PA. Over the past 30 plus years, I have been helping people become their best selves by adopting a regular program of exercise.

At one time or another, I have worked in every segment of the fitness industry and have seen the good and bad.  Unfortunately, many fitness centers exist only to line the pockets of their owners with money taken from members who do not show up. That why we developed our own studio, Strength for Life, to make sure that we focus on getting results for our clients.

My mission is to help as many people as possible get in the best shape of their life, so they can be the best version of themselves.