Top Fitness Tips For 2010

Heed our experts' advice: Fitness is a journey, not a destination.

By SOBeFiT Staff; Illustration by Sean Freeman

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KENNETH H. COOPER, MD
“Father of Aerobics,” founder and chairman of Cooper Aerobics Center
   
1. Your health, your longevity, your quality of life is what you do for yourself, not for others, your physician, your insurance or the government.
   
2. Fitness is a journey, not a destination, and you must keep it for the rest of your life. It is not what you did six months ago that counts—it’s what you did yesterday. Fitness cannot be stored. Discipline is the key to reaching and maintaining a high level of fitness.
   
3. If there is one thing people should do for their health it is not smoke or inhale sidestream smoke. Tobacco usage is the worst health problem in the world today.
   
4. “Five is fine, nine is divine.” This is the number of fruits and vegetables we should consume daily.
   
5. Don’t be guilty of saying, “If only.” In over 50 years of practicing medicine, on many, many occasions people have told me, “If only I had listened… done this, done that.”


DENISE AUSTIN
Fitness expert, spokesperson and TV/DVD personality
   
6. Change your routine on a monthly basis, even if it is a different way to do a push-up… hands in (triceps) instead of out (for chest). Small, little changes make a big difference in workouts. Jack LaLanne told me that years ago.
   
7. Flexibility [is important]. A lot of times when you feel tightness in your back, it can be caused by tight hamstrings. Everything is a result of your posture, how you sit and stand. Think of your whole body when you do a good stretch. It takes only minutes, but it does work.


FIRST SERGEANT HARVEY WALDEN
Expert fitness instructor and host of VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club
   
8. Stop thinking you can do it overnight. And change it up.
   
9. You have control when it comes to diet and lifestyle, and what you put
in your mouth.


GILAD
Fitness pioneer and creator and host of Bodies in Motion TV

10. One of the biggest misconceptions is that to get into shape you must suffer.
   
11. Sometimes you have to do disagreeable things to get agreeable results.

12. Laziness is a poison; it causes you to succumb to bad habits, and it must be overcome.
   
13. Don’t try to fit in too much too soon. Even if you do 15 minutes of push-ups and sit ups, you’re better off than doing nothing.


TARA STILES
Yoga expert, model and host of Women’s Health magazine’s Yoga channel

14. Keep a garden, grow your own vegetables and eat them.

15. Help as many people as possible live healthier and happier lives.

16. When it comes to fitness, attention and focus are neglected most.

17. The one sport everyone should try? Yoga.
   
18. Yoga and running have a lot in common. It's just you out there, with your own thoughts to deal with. Yoga and running reveal what is going on with your thoughts, what is in your way, and what your fears and insecurities are.


MARTA MONTENEGRO
Fitness expert, editor-in-chief, founder and publisher of SOBeFiT Magazine

19. Women too often neglect lifting weights. And men don’t stretch enough.

20. Get moving. Let’s face it: Your body was made to do so.

21. Know this: Muscles grow when you sleep and rest!

22. Make a small change, one that you feel comfortable with.
   
23. Being healthy is not that complicated, and doesn’t need any kind of fancy equipment.

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