Embarking upon a new fitness program can be a challenging task. Here are six steps to ensure you start down the right path to health.
1) What’s your starting point? Before embarking on any fitness program, it is important that you first assess your own level of health and fitness. If you have not been regularly exercising, you should check with your doctor before taking the next step. At the very least, plan to start slow and build your way up.

2) Set your goals. What are you trying to achieve? Weight loss? A more muscular body? Write down short term concrete goals that will guide you. One goal might be to lose ten pounds. Another might be to move up to a more difficult level on the stationary bike. Goals are important for several reasons.

Suppose that at a distance you see a short, stooped figure walking with short, slow steps. Most likely, you will conclude that the person is old. The hunched posture gives you the clue.

Why does aging contort so many bodies in this way? The reason is that many people, throughout their lives, never extend the neck to its full range, and so the muscles shorten. Long hours of reading, sewing, typing, or standing at a workbench take their toll. Eventually deposits of calcium salts in the joints complete the process of immobilization. Once this calcification takes place, nothing can be done to reverse it.