Ruff Fitness

Welcome to 2010 – are you ready to get in the best shape of your life? There is no single strategy that can work perfectly for every person, every time. To keep your program fresh, you need to make it your own. Below, you'll find two dozen of the most important training fundamentals based on research and trends from leading coaches and trainers. Adopt them as general guidelines, and then apply them to create your own smart, results orientated workouts.

The Basics

1. Variety. Your body adapts to the stress placed on it. Your exercise program should be always evolving and changing.

2. Periodization. Work in preset phases of intensity - go easier before going hardest, slow before fast, simple before complex, and light before heavy.

3. Schedule recovery time or be prepared for burnout. Strength and fitness develops during the recovery phase.

4. Break workouts up when you need to. Studies show that ten minutes, three times a day, equals 30 minutes at once.

5. Practice complete workouts. Active warm up first, and then cool down and stretch when you're finished.

Cardio

6. Build the foundation by going easy (little more than half of your ability or 60 – 70 percent of your maximum heart rate). Building endurance requires the patience to go slow.

7. Boost your fitness by going fast - to raise your lactate threshold, use intervals (short bursts over 85 percent of your maximum heart rate).

8. Manage your interval training wisely. First increase the number of intervals per workout (up to six), then their length (up to ten minutes). Then shorten the rest period in between.

9. Build slowly. When increasing the duration or distance of your workouts, don't jump up more than 10 percent from one week to the next week.

10. Exercise restraint – hard days such as intervals and tempo training should be done no more than twice a week.

Strength

11. Train movements—front-to-back (lunges), vertical (squats), pushing, pulling and rotational (medicine ball chops)—not body parts.

12. Practice form first. Three exercises done with good form are more productive than 30 done sloppily.

13. If you're new to an exercise—or to lifting altogether—one set of 10 to 12 reps is fine to start.

14. Use your body weight for resistance. Push-ups, pull-ups, and dips are all multi joint movements and excellent strength builders.

15. Use dumbbells. They're safe, versatile, and more challenging than barbells. 16. Integrate – train muscles to work together – example: dumbbell curl to press. 17. Move from stable to unstable - whenever possible, perform lifts on your feet or sitting or lying on a Stability ball.

18. Remember these numbers: 10 and 20. For muscle strength, lift enough weight to reach muscle failure after 10 reps. For muscular endurance and metabolic conditioning, perform up to 20 repetitions.

Fine Tuning

19. Treat stretching—and specifically yoga—as a workout itself, not a wrap-up. 20. Work slow, be slow: Do power lifts, Plyometric’s, and agility drills to supplement your slower-speed core strength and endurance work.

21. Perform Olympic lifts, Plyometric’s, and agility drills when you're fresh—not when you're dog-tired after an endurance workout.

22. Work out in the morning. Excuses to skip a workout will be less likely to pop up, and you'll invariably end up feeling great all day.

23. Find a buddy. Having someone to work out with will keep you on track.

24. Consult with a personal trainer on a regular basis to keep your program fresh, motivating, and results orientated.