Sometime ago one of my good friends and I were sitting at a Starbucks here in Oakland near the water and we were talking about exercise and building a fitness program. In this conversation he asked many questions. One of his questions I thought would be good to share in this week’s blog.  He asked, “When you think about exercises and how to start a fitness program, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?”

My answer was Foundation First. What I meant by that was foundational exercises, the platform that all other exercises stand on. For example when it comes to building, the wise builder makes sure the foundation he uses is strong enough to uphold the weight of the beautiful structure he intends to build. Likewise, foundational exercises are the basic or fundamental exercises that all others stand on. Foundational exercises such as  push-ups, lunges, squats, crunches, pull-ups and dips  can be used to build the basic strength needed to progress to more difficult exercises. These exercises should be mastered first, because they are at the root of all other exercises. In addition, mastering these foundational exercises will allow you to have more control over your body, which will help reduce your chances of injury and provide the necessary platform to build the body you desire and make it easier to learn more fun and challenging exercises.