Most articles on fitness, when discussing routines and exercises will recommend consulting a physician first. That isn't just a means of covering the author against potential legal action. It's recognition of the fact that exercise, done improperly, can be harmful and sometimes you can't get everything you need to know with a few web searches.

A medical doctor, especially one that specializes in sports medicine - a relatively new focus - can check your overall fitness before beginning, help you define your limits and recommend specific routines to help you accomplish your chosen goals.

Prior to becoming a personal trainer I was a CPA mostly working for big financial companies. The change from an office in front of a computer all the day to a gym floor lugging dumbbells was drastic, but I expected that. One aspect my new career that I did not anticipate was the number of fitness-related questions I received outside of work (no one ever used to ask me about debits and credits!). Now that I publish a fitness website, I decided to put together a list of frequently asked questions and get some top fitness and nutrition experts to answer them in video clips. Here are a few:

Long story short I've decided to start exercising in earnest. Slightly longer story, my doctor mumbled something bout a treadmill test.

Longest story:

I'm a picky eater. I usually pick stuff that's not good for me. I always have been. Back in my youth some twenty plus years ago I went through Naval basic training and dropped around 100 lbs in 9 weeks. Not healthy I know. Over the next ten years I slowly gained it all back and kept going. Now I am trying to start working at loosing a lot of it again. I KNOW I can't do the same thing I did in boot camp, which was basically cut back to one meal in the morning and the occasional one or two more additional meals during the day, (depending on what they were serving at the mess hall) I don't have restricted movements so food is readily available to me.