Having Trouble Sticking With A Fitness Routine?

Fitness experts agree that the best way to stick with a fitness routine is to incorporate exercise into your lifestyle. If you try to go out like gang busters, the failure rate is quite high, says Ken Baldwin, president of Premier Fitness, Inc., a personal training company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

A comprehensive exercise and nutrition program works best. For cardiovascular training, Baldwin suggests doing aerobics -- run, swim, walk on a treadmill, ride a stationary or recumbent bike -- for 20 to 30 minutes two or three times per week. Do full-body strength training once or twice a week. Or do a split workout each day, combining exercises for the chest and triceps, back and biceps and hamstring and quadriceps muscles in the legs. After each workout, stretch your muscles to maintain flexibility and cut down on soreness.

Here are some motivational tips to keep you going:

• Set short-term, realistic goals. You don't have to exercise for an hour. New research shows that 10 minutes three times a day may be all you need.

• Keep an exercise diary. A log of when and how much you exercise makes it more tangible.

• Find places in everyday life to exercise automatically. Take the stairs instead of an escalator. While brushing your teeth, slide one leg back to stretch your calf muscle, then switch legs.

• Make a commitment to somebody else. Tell your kids, a co-worker or the store clerk you see everyday how good you feel about exercising.

• Find a workout buddy. A buddy can share your good feelings of exercising and help motivate you to show up to workout.

• Reward yourself when you reach your goals with a vacation, a new item of clothing or a party.