How to Plan an Exercise Regimen

1. Physical Condition - You should factor your age, weaknessses, medical conditions, and previous injuries before you begin an exercise program. You can consult your doctor for a stress test to measure the amount of exercise your body can handle and a full exam to determine what kind of limit to put on your activity.

2. Your Goals - This is what you want to get from exercising. Are you trying to lose fat? Are you trying to gain muscle? Are you trying to run a marathon? Each of these desires would of course create the need for different types of exercise and a different exercise regimen.
You should factor your age, weaknessses, medical conditions, and previous injuries before you begin an exercise program. You can consult your doctor for a stress test to measure the amount of exercise your body can handle and a full exam to determine what kind of limit to put on your activity.This is what you want to get from exercising. Are you trying to lose fat? Are you trying to gain muscle? Are you trying to run a marathon? Each of these desires would of course create the need for different types of exercise and a different exercise regimen.

3. Schedule - It's important that you stick with the exercise that you choose. Setting a realistic schedule from the start is important. Don't say you are going to exercise 4 hours a night because while maybe you can do this for one day you will not be able to keep this up. It's better to be realistic so that you set a schedule that you can actually follow and keep up with. You should not exercise when you feel ill.

Your Exercise Regimen

1. Balance - Condition all parts of your body. Your heart, your lungs, your legs, your stomac, your back and your upper body. Even if your goal is to have giant biceps or to lose fat it's still very important you have an overall exercise plan that is well balanced. It's not good for your body to exercise one part of your body but not the rest. In the case of muscle building this can actually cause a lot of harm to your body. If one part of your body becomes too strong while another part is still weak this can raise the chance of injury very high.

2. Regulate - Take your pulse regularly. If your pulse is too high perhaps you should make the exercise less intense. It's important to stay aware of where you are at physically throughout your exercise routine. To gain the maximum cardiovascular benefits from exercising you want to elevate your heart rate to about 75 to 80 percent of your maximum heart rate. You can figure your estimated maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. For example if you 40 then your maximum heart rate would be about 180. If you are 80 then it would be 140. Raising your pulse above 80% of this number can be dangerous and not raising it to above 75% will not be high enough to exercise your heart. To give an example of this heart rate sweet spot we'll take my example. I am 29 so my maximum heart rate is 191. 75% of 191 is 143 and 80% of 191 is 153 so my sweet spot for cardiovascular exercise is a heart rate between 143 and 153. If you go to the gym and run on the treadmills there most of the modern treadmills will calculate your heartbeat as you are running. Weightlifting is a different type of exercise and you do not really need to be as concerned about your heart rate. Weightlifting does not cause the heart rate to go up as high as running does.

3. Frequency - Exercise at least three times per week. More is fine but make sure to avoid burn out. You want to keep up your exercise long term.

4. Workout Time - 30 minutes of sustained activities is recommended. Cardiovascular and fat burning benefits of aerobic activity will not take effect if you are not moving and breathing through this time period.