Fitness routine

tfisher679

Hey I'm trying to figure out a new fitness routine and was just curious what everybody else is doing? Mainly for how long and what kind of exercises everybody was doing in that time frame. I've got about 45 at the gym 3 days a week to do it in. I want to make every minute count and then some.

kawookie

It all depends on what your current goals are. If you are at the beginning of your weight loss journey, focusing on cardio likely is the best bang for your buck.

Cardio is what burns lots of calories. For example, elliptical machines work your whole body and have excellent calorie burn. But if you are getting back into exercise I would strongly suggest doing what you like the best -- bike, treadmill, elliptical, step machines, rowers (the last two are brutal btw).

For a 45 minute session I might:

Best (this combines a warm up with strength training and cardio to build muscles and burn calories)

10 minutes: Warm up on a cardio machine ( recently I've been using the lateral trainer)
10 minutes: Strength training with some ab exercises, and then either arm or leg machines
20 minutes: Another cardio machine (I love the elliptical so I'd be there)
5 minutes: Stretching

Good (this focuses on cardio but also does some basic strengthening reasonable for a beginner)
5 minutes walking the track or treadmill (warm up)
30 minutes on cardio machine of choice doing intervals (easy - harder)
5 minutes of mat work (e.g. sit ups, push ups, planks, crunches)
5 minutes of stretching to cool down

Okay (the lazy way - that will work fine as long as you stretch yourself by upping intensity as you get stronger. Choosing two different machines each time you work out is cross training which is tied to better results)
10 minutes a challenging machine (eg. stair stepper)
30 minutes favorite cardio machine set to intervals
5 minutes cool down/stretch


I hope this helps you as you plan your workouts.