Exercise is an important part of living a healthy lifestyle, but unfortunately many people are lost when it comes to finding a workout plan that works best for them. When determining which type of exercise plan is best for your needs, you must first determine what exactly you want to accomplish; do you want to lose weight, build muscle, or maybe just improve your heart health? Once you’ve determined your long-term fitness goals, you can find a perfect exercise workout plan to suit your needs.
CDC Recommended Exercise Plan
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, recommends that adults get at least 2-1/2 hours of moderately intense aerobic exercise per week. If your goal is to lose weight and/or improve your heart health, this exercise plan is ideal for you. This exercise regimen can be used by people of all fitness levels. The minimum amount of exercise time required for this program is 30 minutes, five days per week. As your fitness level improves over the course of several weeks, increase the time spent exercising by a few minutes per session. Some examples of moderate aerobic exercise includes jogging, walking briskly, a light swim, rollerblading and biking. The key to getting the greatest weight loss benefit from this workout plan is to keep your heart rate within your target heart rate zone. Your target heart rate range is approximately 220 minus your age; you then multiply this number by 0.5 and 0.85 to find your target heart rate zone, according to figures provided by the American Heart Association. Stay within this range while exercising, and you will get optimal weight loss benefits.
Resistance Training
Those looking to build muscle should focus on a resistance training program. Ideally, you would want access to a fitness center with all of the gym equipment available, or at least have a weight bench set and dumbbells at your own home gym. Alternatively, multi-gym machines, such as the Bowflex, also work well for resistance training. The key to increasing muscle mass is to completely exhaust your muscles during each workout, and then most importantly, letting your muscles rest so that they can rebuild the muscle tissue—that’s how muscles get bigger. For beginners, a Monday, Wednesday, Friday lifting schedule works best because there is a day of rest in between each session. Each workout should ideally last no longer than 60 minutes. Work each muscle once per week by targeting it with four to eight sets of 10 to 15 repetitions each; choosing two different exercises per muscle—at four sets each—seems to work best. Begin each workout by working the biggest muscle groups first so that you can put all of your energy into these sets; this would include bench press, squats/leg presses, dead lifts/back exercises. In addition to working out a high intensity, be sure that you are getting an adequate amount of protein in your diet. BodyBuilding.com recommends consuming one or two grams of protein per pound of lean body mass—not overall bodyweight—spread out throughout the day. Protein is an essential amino acid used in the muscle building process.
High Intensity Interval Training
For people looking to burn fat fast and improve their endurance, high intensity interval training, or HIIT, may be the answer. This type of workout plan is recommended for those who are relatively physically fit, so beginners should use a moderate workout plan before trying HIIT. This type of training works by boosting metabolism and burning calories; it is also effective at increasing muscle mass and tone. HIIT is frequently used by college and professional athletes. This type of exercise regimen consists of a “rest” period followed by a “work” period. Each period, or interval, is short—usually 30 to 60 seconds—so your body learns to recover fast. A sample HIIT program would include jogging for 60 seconds immediately followed by a 60 second sprint at 80 to 90 percent of your maximum speed. You would repeat these “rest-and-work” intervals for at least five cycles. Many treadmills offer interval training settings, and HIIT can be done using other types of high intensity physical activities as well, such as swimming, biking and rollerblading. HIIT should be done three to five times per week, and each session should last approximately 10 to 25 minutes.
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