It is a universal fact that exercise is very good for your health. Period. According to the NHS exercise can reduce your risk of major illnesses, such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer by up to 50% and lower your risk of early death by up to 30%. It is not easy to develop exercise as a habit; youll need great determination and perseverance to succeed. However, the reward of such hard work couldnt be more relished. Here is how you can integrate your current repetitive exercise routine into a full-fledged lifestyle choice.

1. Find a personal trainer



If friends and family are not enough to motivate you, and lets face it they can be a bit distracting at times, finding yourself a qualified personal trainer is ideal. Professional trainers can provide you a tailored exercise plan for optimum results and prevent you from injuries regardless of whether youre new to exercising or training for a specific event.

You can seriously injure yourself if are not familiar with the gym facilities. Professional trainers will provide more than just equipment training, for instance, Livefit has a wide range of services from personal body building to dance-fit and fighting-fit, along with nutritional consultation to monitor progress and provide instructions on your diet.

A personal trainer is essential for making any substantial process and maintaining your initial burst of enthusiasm.

2. Pick the exercises specifically suited to you

This will be clarified with your trainer, but to maintain your regime, you must keep it fresh and target specific areas to make your body stronger. Remember, its all about developing exercising as a habit. There are several questions you should ask yourself; Is it the sort of exercise you enjoy? Can you do it regularly? Does it fit within your current schedule?

For example, you may find jogging interesting and you can do it every day after work, but you may have a knee joint issues which could make jogging a bad choice. You should also consider a various routine includes weights and cardio to keep your exercising fresh and help work multiple parts of the body; whilst choosing just one exercise, you concentrate your energy on certain focal areas that could lead to an intensified strain on particular muscles and joints and increased chance of injury.



3. Set achievable goals

In order to provide motivation for exercising, you need to set goals. It is important to set both short-term and long-term goals, and then develop when you have achieved these. After setting your long-term goal such as I want to lose 15kg in one year, you would also need short-term goals such as run 10km this week to give yourself a sense of achievement and progress thus keep you going to reaching the ultimate target.

As suggested by Forbes, those who set goals and write them down have higher chances to succeed! Also, do not forget to reward your success when goals are achieved to provide you the motivation to carry on.

4. Organise your schedule

If you are determined to keep fit, keeping a diary specifically for exercise to record your progress and establish a timetable for exercising is essential. Whilst there are many articles out there claiming the morning is the optimum time for exercising and vice versa, there is no evidence showing that time has significant impact on results of exercise. According to WebMD, research suggests that in terms of time, morning is generally favoured.



5. Commit to a friend/ family member

Let everyone know that you are going to take exercise seriously! Ask them to monitor your progress and remind you not to give up easily. This is a powerful way because we are bound to be influenced by the others, especially by close friends and family members. Even better, you can find someone to exercise with you. You can get healthy together and even strengthen the relationship with them.

However, its important to remember do not rely on others to get the job done. Friends and family members are to influence you only. It is ultimately up to you to succeed.