Basic Fitness 101 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Fail to have your physician clear you for exercise

You should have a physical before starting a vigorous program. Your doctor can advise you of hidden health risks. Assuming your doctor says you are fit to start a training program, that program should include weight resistance training, cardio, and proper nutrition.

Answer: 1 year

Most studies suggest that a safe combination of exercise and nutrition should yield a loss of 1 to 2 lbs. per week. That should indicate a time period of 37 weeks to 75 weeks to accomplish this goal. Losing 75 lbs. in 6 months would be a rate of 3 lbs. per week and would not be advisable.

Answer: None of these are good ways

There are several different good approaches, and nutrition science is always finding out more about how our bodies retain and lose fat. But in general, drastic means tend to not be the best choices.

Answer: No, that is on the lower recommended range for a 40 year old woman

Surprised? You are just fine - right where a healthy woman should be! The ideal bodyfat percentage for a middle-aged woman is 23% - 33% and for middle aged men is 11% - 21%. These numbers vary slightly with age. For more information, see http://shapeup.org/bodylab/frmst.htm .

Answer: You need about a 5 minute cardio warm-up before exercising.

You absolutely need about 5 minutes of cardio just to get your blood flowing, literally! A moderate pace (brisk walk) on a treadmill or crosstrainer is all you need. Doing 30 minutes of cardio before your workout is excessive and will rob you of the energy you need to focus on your weightlifting. Do that at a separate time. Also, stretch before lifting weights - it helps prevent injury.

As far as your trainer chatting with her buddies goes, you deserve the undivided attention of your trainer for the entire session. You are paying for it.

Answer: When you wake up, before breakfast

Recent studies have shown that doing cardio first thing in the morning before breakfast is the best time because it helps boost your metabolism for the entire day and is most effective in proper body fat loss. The beneficial effect of the cardio decreases as the day goes on.

Answer: Improving nutrition and increasing cardiovascular exercise

I hope you got this right! When you lose fat, you lose it from all over. All the localized exercise in the world, abdominal exercises in this case, will not burn fat only in the waist. In fact, the best abdominal exercises only develop the muscles themselves and have little effect on the layer of fat covering them.

As a side note, sit-ups are some of the LEAST effective exercises for abdominal development and they create unnecessary stress on the lower back and other body parts.

Answer: 45 minutes to an hour

Your weight-resistance training program needs to be in proper form and focused. You need to give it your maximum effort! Unfortunately, it is not possible for most people to give maximum effort after about the first hour, so longer workouts tend to be counter productive and can lead to overtraining.

Answer: Bigger muscles and faster fat loss

Overtraining is a serious problem, especially among beginners. A good steady program will give you the best results - and if you start to experience lack of muscle growth or muscle atrophy, injuries, or loss of motivation, you may be overtraining. Pull back and revise your workout.

Answer: Lift weight 7 days a week - don't let your results backslide

You have to rest and let your muscles recover. Muscles grow when they are at rest, not when you exercise them. The 3X weekly is a good beginner exercise in which you exercise each body part. The 4 day split routine exercises half your body on the 1st and 4th day, the other half on the 2nd and 5th day, and rest on 3rd, 6th and 7th days. The 5x weekly is more advanced.