Top 10 Ways To Get In Shape

Before you can determine your top 10 ways to get in shape, consider your goals. Some people want to burn calories and lose weight, while others want to strengthen and tone. For many people, improving or maintaining their heart health is a primary goal. Ultimately, the best ways to get fit involve doing workouts that challenge you and suit your lifestyle.

Cardiovascular Exercise

If you want to raise your heart rate, break a sweat, produce endorphins and burn calories, you need to do cardiovascular exercise. One way to get in shape through cardio workouts is doing moderate exercise such as speed walking or road cycling for at least 150 minutes per week. Another is to do intense cardiovascular exercise such as running, rollerblading or jumping rope for at least 75 minutes per week.

Strengthening and Toning

Strengthening and toning exercises help you burn fat and build lean body mass. In addition, doing two or three 20-minute sessions per week raises your resting metabolic rate, meaning that you burn more calories during the course of your day. Two top strengthening and toning activities include lifting weights and using resistance exercises or resistance machines. Do a series of moves that rotate between your major muscle groups, including arms, legs, shoulders, pectoral muscles, gluteal muscles and abdominal muscles.

Circuit Training

Try circuit training if you want to burn calories quickly as well as strengthen and tone in the same workout. One type of circuit training entails rotating between cardiovascular machines, floor equipment and weight training during a single workout. Keep the pace fast and do not pause long to rest between stations. Another popular form of circuit training is the boot camp workout, which has participants moving between high-impact cardiovascular work to calisthenics to strengthening work such as lunges, squats, lateral raises, pullups and pushups.

Interval Training

If you have hit a weight loss plateau, interval training can add new challenges to your workout and make you burn more calories more quickly. One way to interval train is as easy as pushing a few buttons. When using a cardiovascular exercise machine, adjust the settings for interval training. This setting automatically adjusts the machine to create sprint-level workouts followed by rest periods before returning to a fast pace and then sprinting again. Another way to interval train is to run your regular route and break into a 30-second sprint every five minutes.

Flexibility

Certain exercise routines help you stretch, tone and improve flexibility. Dr. Mehmet Oz recommends two ways to get in shape with routines centered around flexibility. He asks people to start each day with a series of yoga moves known as the sun salutations. His other recommendation is to do the series of upper body stretches and floor work moves that comprise his 20-minute workout.