The Target: Total Fitness - Planning a level of intensity

Keep in mind that a flexible plan may call for different adjustments under different circumstances. It may indicate sometimes that it is best to terminate the day's activities. On other occasions it may require elimination of some exercises and continuation with others.

1. • Your knee begins to bother you. You drop the exercises calling for knee exertion and retain those that don't.
2. • You get a “stitch” in your side. Because it hurts continually, you decide to downplay those exercises—for that day—that produce or exacerbate the discomfort.
3. • While running in place, you find yourself troubled by shin splints, those pains along the sides of the shin bones. You stop running and turn to something else.

Flexibility can exist alongside dedication to a program. As common sense dictates, the individual should sometimes slow down or blow the whistle completely on some exercises. Even Napoleon retreated now and then.

Another important principle should be noted: the individual will build and take to a fitness program most readily if he believes it will do him some good. And if he has faith and confidence in it, he is likely to stay with the program over the long haul.