A Novice's Guide to Planning an Exercise Program

There is a very simple principle to remember when planning an exercise program. It is called the F.I.T.T principle.

F= Frequency
I = Intensity
T= Time
T= Type of exercise

Frequency. This refers to how often you need to exercise in a week, in order to gain a health benefit. It needs to be at least 3 times a week but ideally 5 times and optimally 7 times. If you exercise less than 3 times, you will not gain any health benefit. The only thing you get by training twice a week is sore muscles.

Intensity. This refers to how hard you exercise. You need to work the body harder than is normal for completing every day tasks and it will be important to start at the correct intensity. This intensity needs to be manageable. If it is too high, it will put you off, if it is too low, you will not get the ideal health benefits. You should start at around 55-60% of your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR). MHR is calculated by subtracting your age from 220. So for a 40 year old, the MHR is 180 beats per minute. His/her target exercise rate is around 60% of 180. i.e. 108 beats per minute. If you feel this is too easy, you can raise it slightly. But take care, it is better to start too low than too high.

Time. This refers to how long you need to exercise in a session. You need to exercise at your chosen intensity for at least 20 minutes. The period after 20 minutes is when fats can be burned most effectively. The longer you exercise after 20 minutes, the more benefit you will get. Build the time up gradually and you will see real benefits in 4-6 weeks.

Type of Exercise. You need to be doing an aerobic type of exercise. This means you want to be doing a "continuous" type of exercise such as swimming, walking, hill walking, cycling, jogging, aerobic classes, or dancing. This type of exercise allows your body to use fat as its source of energy and therefore you will achieve fat loss.

Note: You do not need to stick to one exercise. Variety can help keep you motivated and make regular exercise more enjoyable.

After a few weeks of regular exercise you will begin to feel the exercise "less taxing." This means that your body is adapting to the exercise that you are currently doing, and this means that you are ready to increase the intensity slightly. You can do this by increasing:

The % of your MHR
The length of time spent exercising, or
The number of sessions you do each week.

Whatever you decide to increase, make sure the increase is a GRADUAL one.

An essential part of any exercise session should be the "warm-up" and "cool down." Your warm up will gently raise your pulse-rate so that it prepares the body for the more strenuous main activity and will lessen the chances of injury.

Any warm-up should have 3 phases:

1. A Pulse Raising Activity. An activity that will gently raise your heart rate e.g. walking, gentle jogging or skipping.

2. Stretches. Stretch all the major muscles you will be using in your main exercise activity. Hold each stretch under mild tension for about 20 seconds.

3. Mobility Exercises. These exercises will help to loosen and warm your joints.

A cool down after you main activity is also an important part of your exercise session. This involves gentle exercise similar to your main activity, to allow your pulse rate to gradually return to normal. Follow this with some gentle stretches.

A cool down allows muscles to return to their normal temperature slowly and to reduce the risk of damage due to sudden drop in temperature. By performing a cool down you also reduce the risk of sore or stiff muscles following exercise.