Participating in a fitness program requires time and dedication. For your workouts to be effective and to make good use of your time, you need to include four key components. The four workout types improve the fifth component of fitness, which is how exercise affects your body. In addition to changing your appearance, exercise benefits your heart, lungs and bones, and reduces your risk of diabetes.
Cardiovascular
The importance of including cardiovascular exercise into your workout routine cannot be stressed enough. The benefits of regular participation in aerobic exercise include reduced weight, improved blood pressure, stronger heart and lungs, improved cholesterol, lower risk for diabetes and stroke, and reduced anxiety. If you are unable to sustain cardio exercises such as walking, running, swimming, cycling, dancing or skating for 30 minutes at once, split apart your workout into two 15-minute sessions or three 10 minute sessions. If your goal is weight loss, the American Council on Exercise recommends an increased workout time of 45 minutes a day.
Muscle
Muscular strength and muscular endurance are two more fitness components. Muscular strength is a measure of how much weight you are able to lift. Improvements in strength lead to increased independence in daily life as you are able to carry groceries, move furniture or lift items over your head. Include strength exercises such as pushups, squats, pullups and situps into your workout routine two or three days a week. Aim to perform each exercise for longer than 15 seconds, but less than 90 seconds. This improves your muscular endurance. Muscle strength will not help you if you are able to squat down only once to pull weeds from your garden. You want to be able to squat repeatedly and this requires muscular endurance.
Flexibility
Often, a tight muscle is a weak muscle. If you are strong, but are unable to move your arms all the way over your head, your strength is not helpful. Flexibility exercises stretch your muscles so you maintain an adequate range of motion in your joints. The American Council on Exercise recommends stretching warm muscles. A good time to stretch is after your cardiovascular exercise, and maintain each stretch for a minimum of 15 to 30 seconds. Perform flexibility exercises daily for best results.
Body Composition
Your participation in cardiovascular, muscular strength and endurance and flexibility exercise will change your body composition. You burn fat as fuel during cardiovascular exercise, which leads to weight loss. The increased muscle tissue you gain increases your metabolism, which burns more calories and aids in weight loss. When you lose fat and gain muscle, your body composition changes. Your body composition includes a measurement of your body fat percentage and your lean muscle tissue. A low body fat leads to a reduced risk for heart disease, diabetes and stroke.
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