Reduce your risks of chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis and heart disease by participating in a regular program of aerobic and strength training workouts. The American College of Sports Medicine reports that you need to do only 30 minutes of moderately to vigorously intense aerobic exercise three to five days a week and only two sessions of strength training exercises per week to improve and maintain your health.
Long-Duration, Low-Intensity Aerobics
It is a common misconception that you must do an entire 30-minute to 90-minute aerobic session at once. You will derive the same health benefits of three, 10-minute sessions as you would in one, 30-minute session. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, exercise for 60 to 90 minutes if you want to lose weight or maintain your weight-loss. Choose an aerobic activity that easily works into your daily schedule, such as doing step aerobics at home before going to work, or stopping by the gym on your way home to use the treadmill. Do run and walk intervals on the treadmill. For instance, walk for three minutes and run for a minute. At your next treadmill session, walk for three minutes and run for two minutes. Continue to increase your run time and decrease your walk time until you can run for 30 minutes without stopping. Or, use the walk-and-run interval to complete a full 60-minute session, or do two 30-minute sessions.
High-Intensity Interval Training
According to a 2006 article by David Swain, Ph.D., published by the American College of Sports Medicine, individuals participating more often in vigorously intense exercise have a greater reduction in coronary heart disease risk than individuals who participated mostly in moderately intense exercise. If you already have health problems, however, such as heart disease or high blood pressure, you should not do high-intensity interval exercises. Do interval training on a flat field or on a treadmill. Perform a light warm-up and a brief stretch before you start your interval session. Run fast for 30 seconds then walk for 90 seconds. Then, sprint as fast as you can for 30 seconds and walk for 90 seconds. Repeat this sprint and walk interval for a total of 20 minutes.
Split-Body Strength Training
Do a two-way split for your weight training workouts. Use heavy enough weights so you are only able to complete one to five reps per set. Perform four sets of each exercise, including a three to four-minute recovery period between sets of the same exercise. For a two-way split, work your lower body, abdominals and your shoulders on Monday--do squats, lunges, leg curls, crunches with a dumbbell, sit-ups with a dumbbell, calve raises, shoulder presses and lateral raises. Then, on Thursday work your upper body--do flat bench presses, incline bench presses, flat dumbbell flies, lateral pull-downs, one-arm dumbbell rows, seated back rows, standing dumbbell curls, cable curls, triceps extensions and triceps press downs.
References
- American College of Sports Medicine: Physical Activity and Public Health Guidelines
- "ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal"; Moderate- or Vigorous-Intensity Exercise: What Should We Prescribe; David Swain, Ph.D., Sept./Oct. 2006
- "Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning"; Thomas R. Baechle and Roger W. Earle; 2000
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