If you want to improve your fitness through exercise you have many options when beginning an exercise routine, such as taking a step or kickboxing class, doing aerobic workouts, or walking on the treadmill. However, several things should be taken into consideration before beginning any type of exercise. Understanding your body, your expectations and your goals will help you design and stick to exercise routines that will help you on your path toward fitness or weight loss.
Step 1
Determine your overall health and fitness level before starting on any type of new exercise program. The Mayo Clinic suggests performing what they call a baseline, or benchmark, test first to determine your current fitness status so that you can use it for comparison as you lose weight or grow stronger with exercise. The clinic suggests seeing how many push ups you can do at one time, measuring your waist at the belly button, seeing how far you can reach forward when sitting on the floor with legs extended in front of you, determining your body mass index, taking your pulse before and after walking a mile, and determining how long it takes you to walk a mile.
Step 2
Compare various exercise programs or routines that will suit your fitness level now. For example, if you are in poor shape, you may not want to challenge yourself to run 5 miles on the treadmill or 3 miles on a recumbent bike. Start slow and work your way up. The key to any exercise program is to get moving. Start with 15- to 20-minute chunks of exercise between 3 and 5 days a week and allow the body to rest in between workout days. Add five minutes to your exercise routine the following day, suggests Active.com.
Step 3
Choose routines that offer different benefits. For example, cardio or aerobic workouts are great for burning calories and increasing stamina and endurance. Yoga or Pilates is good for overall toning and stretching, and for strengthening core muscles. Weight lifting is great for burning calories and increasing lean muscle mass. Try to keep your exercise routine interesting and effective by combining different types of exercises on a weekly basis. Active.com suggests choosing exercises that you enjoy so that you will keep at it.
Step 4
Mix up your exercise routines between indoor and outdoor activities. Exercise at home one day, and talk a walk in the park the next. Go to the gym and lift weights another day, or play a game of tennis or racquetball with friends. Make exercise fun and change it up as often as possible to prevent boredom.
Step 5
Start slow, not only with time frames, but goals. For example, when jogging outdoors or on a treadmill, try to jog for between 30 seconds and a minute and then walk, allowing the heart rate to get back to normal. Do this for the first week and increase the length of your jog intervals by 10 seconds. Or, when lifting weights, start with a light weight (3 or 5 lbs.) to 8-lb. weights for 8 to 10 reps of each exercise for the first week, then increase weight or reps the following week.
Tips and Warnings
- The Mayo Clinic suggests that 15 minutes of exercise every other day is more effective than longer workouts every day if exercises aren't being done correctly because you're too tired or not in good enough shape to complete the exercises properly.
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