According to the American College of Sports Medicine, more than 60 percent of women participate in less then optimal amounts of daily physical activity. In order to prevent health problems such as heart disease, breast cancer, osteoporosis, depression, menstrual difficulties and depression, women must incorporate regular exercise into a daily routine. A total body exercise program should include cardiovascular exercise, flexibility and strength training.
Workout Components
Based on your specific goals, include both strength training and cardiovascular exercise. Cardiovascular exercise includes any activity that increases your heart rate and respiration such as jumping rope, running, biking or stepups. Strength exercises should incorporate core, upper and lower body exercises. Exercises like pullups and pushups, known as compound movements, work multiple muscles group in one exercise. This makes them very efficient exercises for total body workouts.
Guidelines
When putting together your workout, balance out the strength and cardiovascular components. Strength exercises should work the chest, back, arms and shoulders as well as the quadriceps, hamstrings and gluteal muscles. Include the abdominal and lower back muscle groups for a full body workout. For cardiovascular exercise, find activities that you can easily include for a short period of time. Use tools including the physioball, resistance tubing, dumbbells, body weight, jump ropes, steps and medicine balls.
Sample Circuit Workout
Circuit training effectively trains all the muscle groups and incorporates both strength and cardiovascular exercise in a short period of time. A typical circuit uses anywhere from five to 10 exercises in back to back format for a specific time period. Be sure to incorporate enough time between exercises to move to the next spot and recover. Perform the following exercises in order: squats, pushups, planks, jumping jacks, rows with a resistance tube, lunges and crunches.
Precautions
As with any exercise program, listen to your body and include exercises within your abilities. Start with the above total body circuit completing 30 seconds of each exercise with 30 to 60 seconds to move between stations. If you want to focus more on upper-body strength, include more upper-body exercises; do more lower-body work if you want to strengthen your legs. As you progress, increase the amount of time spent at each station.
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