Posted on 7th Jul 2009 @ 2:56 PM

Exercising can seem like a massive chore on your never ending to-do list. By making a few changes you can effortlessly fit a realistic workout into your daily schedule. Here are a few suggestions from Vitamins4u.com.au's Personal Trainer, Darlene Powell.  With over 16 years in the fitness industry, the last few as an award winning personal trainer operating out of her own gym on the magnificent Gold Coast we are very grateful to have Darlene on board and offer you her words of advice.

• If your program is centered on your enjoyment of outdoor activities, have some indoor alternatives for when the weather is bad.

• Build up your activity level slowly. Running a mile or taking a 2-hour aerobic dance class on your first day won't improve your fitness. If such excesses don't injure you, they will make you tired, sore, and more likely to drop out.

• Make exercise convenient. If you can walk briskly for half an hour to get to work then you don't have to make time during the day for an aerobic workout. Think twice before joining a health club that is miles out of your way.
  

• Give exercise priority in your schedule. "Not having time" to exercise is an evasion. A survey shows that exercisers and non-exercisers have the same amount of leisure time - about 24 hours a week. During busy periods save time by increasing the intensity of workouts instead of skipping them.

• Maintain what you achieve. You can't store the benefits of exercise for very long. Missing a day or two won't hurt, but skipping too many successive workouts will put you back where you started. Even professional athletes lose a portion of their fitness if they don't exercise for a few weeks.

• Find a comfortable fitness level. You don't need to keep intensifying your program once you have met your fitness goals. Research shows that you can maintain fitness with less activity than it took to become fit. In fact, continuously increasing your workout time raises your risk of hurting yourself.

• Accept temporary setbacks. Then pick up your regimen as soon as you can. An illness, an injury, or a personal crisis will inevitably interrupt your exercise program. If you miss a few days of exercise, you can probably start at the level where you left off. With a break of a week or more, you should reevaluate your fitness and work back to your former level very slowly.

• Make other healthful changes. Smokers and people who are overweight are the most likely candidates to quit exercising. Let exercise help you give up smoking and unhealthy eating.

• Keep a support network. You can benefit from staying in touch with other exercisers. You may be inspired by what you see other people accomplish. Or you may enjoy mentoring a spouse, child, or friend.

• Consider competing. Participating in a race, swim meet, golf tournament, or tennis match may give you a focus for your fitness regimen.

• Reward yourself. Getting fit and staying fit are achievements. Treat yourself periodically to a special evening out, new clothes, or a holiday.

We will have more of Darlene's tips for building your training and fitness in our soon to feature Personal Training, Boxing and Weightloss pages.  Darlene's daughter Rikki Lee is also a personal trainer who works out of a Boxing Gym on the Gold Coast. She specialises in Boxing training and will be bringing some of her experience to our pages for all the Boxing for fitness enthusiasts out there.  Keep checking back, our new look website will be up very soon.