How to Create a Personal Fitness Plan

No matter how out of shape you are, fitness can be attained at any age. To create a personal fitness plan and follow through with it on a daily basis, you need to understand your body's capacity and its limitations. You also need to know your goals.

Things You'll Need

• 5 lb. dumbbells

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Instructions

• 1

  You need to determine your fitness goals--whether it's trying to strengthen your heart or lose fat. Before you do anything, you'll need to sit down and write out your fitness program. Writing out your fitness program on paper gives you clear instructions on what to do.

• 2

  Determine your heart rate, If you're trying to strengthen your heart. Determining your heart rate is important for two reasons: First, it will help ensure that you are exercising with enough intensity to achieve your goal--whether it's weight loss or cardiovascular strength. The second reason is that it will warn you if you have greatly exceeded your target heart rate to the point of endangering your health. If you're trying to lose fat like most people, the process is a bit more involved.

• 3

  Target your hamstrings, glutes, inner and outer thighs, triceps, biceps, abdominals and quadriceps. Squats incorporate weight-resistance training into your routine. As we age, our bones become brittle. Hip fractures and other fractures can easily be avoided by performing weight-bearing exercises on a regular basis. Start exercising the larger muscles first, such as the quads. Squats are an excellent exercise for the quads. Stand straight, with your legs slightly apart, and squat as if you are going to sit in a chair. Hold the position for 10 seconds, then slowly rise up to the starting position. Do two sets of 12 reps of squats.

  For hamstrings, you need to do leg lifts. Set the leg lift machine to 20 pounds. Do each leg separately. Curl your leg high enough so that the back of your heel touches your glutes. Hold it for five seconds and repeat. Do two sets of 12 reps of hamstring leg curls.

  To firm your outer thighs use the abductor machine. Set the weight on 50 pounds to start. Spread your legs slowly to full extension, then close them slowly. You will feel a burning sensation. Do two sets of 12 reps.

  To build biceps, start with two 5-pound dumbbells for arm curls, which are very easy to perform. Sit on a straight-back bench and hold your arm at a 90-degree angle. Slowly curl your arm toward your chest counting to five and then slowly extend your arms downward toward your thighs. Initially, do two sets of 12. You can gradually increase the weights by between 2 and 5 pounds when the 5-pound weights become easy to lift.

  To work tricipes, use the same weights, only this time you will stand straight, then bend over at a 90-degree angle and hold on to a bench while placing one knee on it. Then kick your arm backwards slowly

• 4

  Instead of doing the usual boring 30 minutes on the treadmill, take a yoga class at the same time every day. Hatha yoga is the best yoga for beginners. Yoga not only burns calories, but forces you to focus on your breathing, enabling you to relax, stretch your muscles and calm your mind--while giving you the same benefits of a 30-minute workout on the treadmill.

• 5

  After your yoga class, shower and then sit in the steam room for 10 minutes. This will relax you even more, open your pores and make you feel extremely refreshed.