Exercise is an essential part of any healthy lifestyle. If you work out on a regular basis, you’ll benefit from increased strength, improved cardiovascular endurance, fat reduction, as well as an overall decrease in health risks. Yes, we all know that there are countless health benefits of exercise, but just how much exercise do we really need? It all comes down to your fitness goals.

When was the last time you changed your routine at the gym? Most people stick to a tried-and-true formula of 30 minutes to an hour of cardio plus weight training a specific muscle group. The problem with doing that repeatedly is two-fold, however. Mentally, you become less engaged and less motivated to work out, while physically your body adapts to the routine, meaning your fitness levels plateau and results decrease.

Now that Labor Day has come and gone, it is time to put away that bikini for another summer. Unfortunately for most ladies, it also signifies the time of year when workouts and diets fall by the wayside until it's time to make those New Year’s resolutions again.

One of the biggest fitness myths out there is that you should do as much cardio exercise as possible. In theory it sounds good, but the reality is that overdoing it on cardio can actually hinder your ability to reach your fitness goals. So, how much cardio should you be doing? Well, it all depends on what you are hoping to achieve.

So, it's nearly the end of the year and the festive season is upon us, so a great opportunity to relax and slack off on the exercise for a while, right? Well, actually, the opposite is true, as this is the perfect time of year to keep on working out to make sure you don't undo all the positive changes you've made during 2014.

Without doubt the holiday season and New Year celebrations do bring changes.

Love may make the world go round but negative actions and thoughts can make your world spin on its axis, to the point where you lose your footing and any sense of time or space. This may sound extreme, but the fact is that situations, experiences, people and our own minds have a huge influence on our lives.

As we get older and life seems to get more complex, not to mention busy, responsibilities at home and in our working lives can overwhelm, leaving us with what feels like precious little time to ourselves. It's easy to understand how exercise can take a back seat to other seemingly more pressing priorities.

Negativity can get you down and when you are making a valiant attempt to make healthy changes to your life, it can also slow you down and create an uphill struggle. Of course, you can simply try and battle your way through the negative obstacles in your way but you might save energy and get further if you confidently and proactively find ways to deflect negativity successfully!

You don't have to bounce around with a big grin on your face every time you work out - although with us we wouldn't blame you! - but you do need to keep motivation levels up and this means feeling positive about what you can achieve and how you are going about it.

Good, solid training is the key to getting fit, but the way you think, your approach and ultimately your mindset can also make a huge difference. Your thoughts are powerful and can influence your actions and your feelings; a strong tool that can be used to leverage a more dynamic lifestyle and to initiate fitness workouts that could change not just your body but your whole being.

If you don't believe in yourself then you're not going to set and achieve goals, and so you really are setting yourself up to fail and creating a self-perpetuating motion of defeat. Add in some age-old classic exercise excuses and you can easily avoid creating a healthy lifestyle now and also find detours on the road ahead.