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Welcome to the Fitness Forum! Helpful Links Inside

Welcome to the Fitness Forum!  Here is the place to ask any question you might have about how to incorporate activity into your healthy lifestyle. 

 Generic caveat: There is a difference between efficency and long-term effectiveness when it comes to exercise and dieting. Crash diets don't work, crash fitness programs don't work. What does work over the long haul is to incorporate activity into your lifestyle as a regular thing. So keep in mind that exercise efficiency is secondary to exercise consistency, and that crosstraining and doing more than one thing works better than sticking to a single activity. You wouldn't eat only oatmeal for the rest of your life as a "diet", you shouldn't only run or lift weights as your only exercise.

 How much of each kind of exercise you should do depends entirely on your goal - if you want to run a marathon you should do minimal (but some) weights, if you want to deadlift twice your bodyweight you should only do minimal (but some) cardio.

 So formulate a goal - find something you want to do that sounds fun to you, and we'll help you reach that goal.

 We are truly fortunate that there are plenty of intelligent Fitness Forum 'regulars' who are fantastic about answering any question you might have. 

  Please spend some time familiarizing yourself with some of the existing threads in the forum, as they contain an incredible wealth of information.

 Also, keep in mind that sucessful, long-term weight management is a matter of long term behaviour change rather than any specific exercise method. So the first place to start would be with the revised and expanded Calorie Count "diet" - exercise is part of a sucessful weight loss strategy, but it's definitely the junior partner to dietary change. Simply put, you cannot out-train your diet.

To get you started, here are some links to popular and informative existing threads by topic:

Cardio advice:

Flexibility training:

Strength training:



Protein:

What (and when) to eat before/after a workout?

I II III

Target Heart Rate:

For weight loss
Fat burn zone


General Advice: I II III

 Cardio:

HIIT - High Intensity Interval Training

HIIT as Key to Weight Loss
HIIT - all or nothing?
Results


Cycling:

CC Cycling Club
Tips for new cyclists, and purchasing a bike: I II III IV

DVDs:

Slim in Six
Power 90  P90 II
Turbo Jam Turbo Jam II

Ellipticals and cross trainers:
How effective is the elliptical
running vs. elliptical
elliptical versus treadmill/running
Elliptical and stationary bike workout-as good as the treadmill?

 -Purchasing one for the home:
Elliptical recommendation please?
Questions about elliptical trainer

The most common problem with ellipticals:
Anybody get numb feet on the elliptical?
numb toes from elliptical
numb feet on the elliptical

Running:

Mission: Run Around the World
Learn To Run
CC Track Club
Running Buddies
Teen Running Club
Running with the right APPAREL

Swimming:
Fish back in water! Swim to get in shape
Swimming to lose weight
Novice workouts

Strength Training:

List of weight training programs
Why can't this extra fat be used to build my muscles?
Weight Lifting Directory
Women's Weight Lifting
Sets to gain strength 
Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle
Gaining muscle while dieting
Do the squats/lunges in aerobic workouts count as strength training?
6 to 8 reps or 8 to 12 reps or 10 to 15 reps does it matter

Flexibility training:


Yoga & Pilates:
Is Pilates training enough for fat loss?