Founded in 1994, Shape Up America! is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization committed to raising awareness of obesity as a health issue and to providing responsible information on healthy weight management.
Improvement Center
To improve, you have to know where you are. If you have not taken the assessments in the Fitness Center, please do so before continuing
(Go to Assessments). Now is the time to decide exactly what you want to improve and how you will go about improving it.
Sometimes it’s helpful to know what the experts recommend. Click here for recommendations from the experts.
Expert recommendations are important, but even more important is knowing what your goal is. Is your goal to get off the couch? To be more active? To specifically improve your fitness level? To increase your strength? Or, is it a combination of these? Your goal determines the type of activity program you design.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Where am I in terms of activity level?
- Where do I want to be?
- How can I get there (what are the intermediate steps)?
Listed in the chart below are four focus areas of improvement. Click on the Focus Area that interests you and you will receive more details about the activities and information on how to improve and chart your progress.
You may want to do a combination of focus areas. For example, you may be interested in combining Focus Area 2 and Focus Area 4. This combination would give you the benefits of lower risk of chronic diseases plus increased strength, stronger bones and better weight control.
| If you... | Then check out... |
|---|---|
| have a desk job and spend most of your work day sitting; spend most of your time away from the job in sedentary activities like watching TV or working on the computer | Focus Area 1 |
| are trying to be more active in your daily activities; would like to do more at a moderate pace during leisure time to reduce the risk of chronic disease and improve fitness | Focus Area 2 |
| want to commit to a vigorous program to improve cardiovascular fitness in a structured way | Focus Area 3 |
| want to increase the amount of muscle you have; increase your strength | Focus Area 4 |