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Tips on How to Succeed With Exercise Programs

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Based on his studies, San Diego State University psychologist John E. Martin has some tips for reinforcing the exercise habit by meeting your psychological needs:

* Start very slowly, to minimize negative reinforcement. Slow down as soon as you reach 60% to 70% of your maximum age-predicted heart rate, or as soon as it becomes slightly difficult to breathe.

* Tell all your friends to ask about your exercise program often, and to praise you when you’ve exercised.

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* Set time goals rather than distance goals.

* For the first several weeks, just doing something is more important than how much you do. Let endurance develop later.

* Fool yourself into the exercise habit by sleeping in your exercise clothes before a morning workout, or laying the clothes out carefully the night before. Make it a rule that you get up, put on your workout clothes, and step outside before you consider whether to cancel a workout session.

* If possible, exercise with friends and praise each other’s performance.

* Distract yourself with a headset or by talking.

* Do something pleasant afterward.

* If you slack off, see this as a lapse, not a relapse into being sedentary. Take responsibility but no guilt. Start up again at a level half of what you did the last exercise session--so you won’t feel like a failure.

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