CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Dear Cindy,

At 34, I'm in pretty decent shape. My weight stays pretty much where I want it, but other than that, how do I know whether my fitness program is working for me? I run about two miles every other day and swim quite a bit in the summer months. -- Carla

Dear Carla,

This is a great question because too often we sum up our fitness level by stepping on the scale. Weight is an important factor in determining our health status, but it isn't the only factor. Clarifying your question "working for me" is a necessary step toward evaluating your fitness program.

The first step is to define your goals. Some would say fitting into last year's jeans would make them feel like their program is working, while others would use today's blood pressure as an indicator. Clearly we all have varying goals that are specific to us in measuring the effectiveness of a fitness regimen.

Hopefully, everyone's No. 1 goal is to improve health. How do we do that? We pursue activity that reduces body fat, increases lean muscle, controls blood pressure, strengthens the heart and lungs, reduces stress, improves blood cholesterol and triglycerides and helps us sleep better at night. If you are achieving these goals with your fitness program, it's accurate to say it's working.

Once you're clear about what you want to achieve, you can begin monitoring progress in the short term as well as the medium term. As a starting point, getting a thorough physical examination, including simple blood work, from a medical professional allows you to repeat it in six months for comparisons. Exercise can bring remarkable improvements in one's health and in many cases decrease reliance on medications.

Working toward specific goals

If your goal is to become stronger, your main focus should be strength training, and it becomes easy to measure progress by recording the reps and amount of weight you lift. If you need to reduce stress, physical activity with an emphasis on mind and body is a good choice.

Physical indicators of progress toward an optimal body-fat distribution include the waist circumference measurement and a waist-hip ratio. Because abdominal obesity is associated with increased risk for diabetes and heart disease, any reduction in these two numbers is a positive step regardless of weight loss.

Aerobic exercise and metabolic strength training will help improve overall body composition and cardiovascular conditioning. Your resting heart rate before starting your program compared to your current resting heart rate (RHR) will give you clear feedback on the state of your heart. In general, the lower your RHR, the stronger your heart is. To see evidence of a healthy shift in body composition, engage a certified fitness professional/personal trainer to perform body-fat measurements.

Pretests and posttests are the surest way to gauge the kind of success you are experiencing with your training program. If you are not making the kind of strides you want, enlist a certified and experienced personal trainer to help you reach you goals.

There's an app for that

That's right. If you want to track activity and monitor progress with a touch of your finger, the iPhones and Androids stay on the cutting edge of tech fitness. If you are willing to log in and be accountable, excellent app choices are iFitness, Lose It! and iBody. Of course there are new apps every day, and one of the newest on the iPhone 4 is Heart Fitness, which actually monitors your heart rate, among other things.

Seeing measurable progress on various levels is the perfect motivational tool. This is why looking better will continue to beckon people from their warm beds and get them to the gym each morning. However, in addition to the visible progress you can track, never underestimate the intangible improvements you will have in terms of energy, performance, injury risk, self-esteem and other dramatic benefits you'll gain from healthier lifestyle habits.

Cindy Boggs, fitness presenter, author and Activate America director, has been an ACE-certified coordinator/instructor since 1989. Send your questions about fitness, training or health to her at YMCA of Kanawha Valley, 100 YMCA Drive, Charleston, WV 25311, or e-mail cindys...@aol.com. Look for Cindy's award-winning fitness advice book, "CindySays ... You Can Find Health in Your Hectic World," on her website, www.cindysays.com, or contact the YMCA at 304-340-3527.