Deciding on the best workout routine

Visit Starting your weight loss journey, keep a weight loss journal, and finding the right diet plan first.

It’s time to decide on the best workout routine for you. Like finding the right diet plan, I tried various workout routines until I found one that worked for me. Then, I created my own personalized workout routine. I think that’s the most important step in deciding the best workout routine for you: personalization.

How do I personalize the workout routine? You choose exercises you like and rotate them. For example, I love strength training exercises because I found that they work the best for me and my weight loss. So, I rotate strength training exercises daily. I stay active throughout the day but due to a heart condition, I do not do heavy cardio exercises. But, maybe you like cardio exercises. Do them! The key, as I said, is to find what you like and rotate exercises.

Make sure to record what you do everyday in your weight loss journal. Write down what you did, how you felt and how much of the exercise you did. This will help you remember what you liked and what you didn’t like.

Cardio workouts – These are workouts that raise your heart rate to your target heart rate and keeps it there the duration of your workout. Find your target heart rate on my Tools page. By raising your heart rate and through the physical movements, you burn calories.

Examples of cardio workouts are walking, power walking, aerobics, dancing, spinning, stair climbing, jumping rope, playing sports, sex (tee hee), and anything that raises your heart rate to your target heart rate and keeps it there.

Tip 1: Start off slow with cardio. Don’t go right into running. Work up to it by walking first for a week or so, power walking the next week or so, jogging the next and then running. If you jump into running right off the bat, odds are you won’t like it and won’t stick with it. Use this advice when it comes to any cardio workout. Work up to the high-intensity.

Tip 2: Do NOT overdo it! Doing an hour of cardio every day just starting out is a prime example of overdoing it (maybe even an extreme example of overdoing it). I suggest you start of doing 15 minutes a day for 3 days a week and increase the time as you feel comfortable.
An example of a cardio workout plan would be:
Week 1: 15 mins for 3 days
Week 2: 15 mins for 4 days
Week 3: 20 mins for 4 days
Week 4: 20 mins for 5 days
Week 5: 25 mins for 5 days
And so on. Remember to combine tip 1 with tip 2.

Strength training exercises – These exercises build muscle and tone up your body. Muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue does, so you burn more calories doing everyday activities. Simply stated, building muscle raises your metabolism. Ever wonder why it seems easier for men to lose weight than women? That’s because men, biologically, have more muscle than women.

Strength training is my favorite! I always feel energized after doing a strength training workouts. But remember, this is about deciding on the best workout routine for you!

Examples of strength training exercises are sit-ups, crunches, push-ups, squats, leg lifts, weight lifting, lunges, calf-raises and anything that builds muscle. I have created a blog with strength training exercises: Musclemaking101.blogspot.com. Just click on the muscle group on the right for exercises specific to that group.

Important terms to know for strength training are reps and sets. A rep (short for repetition) is the number of times you do a specific exercises. A set is a group of reps. Like 2 sets of 10 reps would equal 20 reps in all.

Tip 1: Start doing simple exercises and then build up to the more advanced. For example: Start off squatting without weights and after a week or so add weights. Increase the amount of weight every week by small increments.

Tip 2: Rotate muscle groups. Don’t just do ab workouts. Work your abs one day, your legs the next, and so on.

Tip 3: When doing reps and sets, don’t overdo it. Start off doing 2 sets of 10 reps of one exercise and increase the amount every time you work that muscle group.

Now that you know the basics of exercising, it should be a little easier deciding on the best workout plan. Remember, personalize it! You can always combine cardio with strength training but pace yourself.

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