Once you start hitting the gym regularly, what exactly should you be doing?

A gym regimen should be tailored to the fitness goal that you are trying to achieve. My recommendation for workouts is to set goals that are physical tasks rather than appearance based. For example, if your goal is to run a 5k, plan your workouts with that in mind.

Even when your ultimate goal is appearance based, you can use measurable physical goals to get there. Setting a poundage goal in a strength exercise or a time goal on the track or treadmill is far more measurable and meaningful than simply saying that you’d like to ‘look better’. I’ll go through some examples next week, but start thinking about some physical goals you might want to achieve.