The minimum duration for exercise should be around 30-mintues. If you are unable, due to time restrictions, to achieve this amount of time then try and break it up to no smaller than 2 15-minute bouts of exercise.
If you are striving for weight loss then this time should be at least 30-minutes 4+ times per week in order to have success. The length of time for exercise will depend on your goals. Be sure to stay active and give it your all each session. Also, keep your routine fresh by mixing the intensity of your workout and the order of your exercises.
At the very least, shoot for ten minutes twice a day. Thirty minutes total a day is even better and anything beyond that is fantastic. Don’t feel like you have to get it all in at once, though. That can be overwhelming and can decrease the chances that you actually do it. Not to mention, breaking up your work out into smaller chunks burns more calories.
The ideal : We always start with walking first and building up to 10,000 steps a day for at least 30 consecutive days. Then we recommend you start resistance exercises every even numbered day, and only after 15 of those days and another 30 days of 10,000 steps do we suggest you progress to 21 minutes three times a week of aerobic exercises, with one minute very intense at the end of every 10. Such anaerobic exercise is not recommended for some people with certain heart or orthopedic conditions, until you have reversed those with diet, stress management and other exercise. Discuss this with your doctor.
The duration of your exercise depends on your goals. If you want to stay healthy and fit strive for at least 15-30 minutes per day, 4-5 days a week. If you are looking to lose weight I suggest increasing your activity to at least 30-60 minutes per day, 5 days a week. With that being said, what’s most important is that you incorporate more movement and activity into your daily routine, every little bit adds up! Also, to prevent your program from becoming stale and to keep your body reaping exercises’ rewards try to vary how hard you’re working from workout to workout. This will ensure that you won’t have to continually increase the duration of your exercise sessions to continue to see benefits. There are different levels of intensity that you can use to do this. For example, make your activity vigorous a few times a week if you want to boost weight loss and calorie burning. Vigorous exercise is characterized as that which causes your breathing to be hard and fast, and your heart rate to go up significantly, you’ll know you’re working at the right level if you can’t say more than a few words without having to stop and take a breath. On easier days, perform lower to moderate intensity exercise. Moderate intensity exercise should cause you to break a sweat and your heart rate to go up but shouldn’t be so hard that you couldn’t have a steady conversation with someone while doing it.
If you are a beginner, start with 10-20 minutes and add more time to each workout until you’re up to 30 minutes.
Continue Learning about Types Of Exercise
Important: This content reflects information from various individuals and organizations and may offer alternative or opposing points of view. It should not be used for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. As always, you should consult with your healthcare provider about your specific health needs.
Creating an exercise program can be daunting to some. You may not even know where to start! Luckily, if you have a few health goals in mind, it can be pretty simple when using the FITT principle. FITT is a principle that many fitness and health professionals use when prescribing physical activity. This easy to remember acronym compiles 4 concepts that all exercise programs utilize.
To get started, it is best to write down 2-3 goals, be specific, try SMART goals. Using your goals, you can use the following categories to design your own basic plan.
F.I.T.T. Principle
Frequency – This refers to the number of exercise sessions completed in a
given amount of time. In the strength and conditioning world, this is typically a week (we generally refer to a 1 to 4-week period a “microcycle”).
Training Status and Frequency Guidelines
Beginner: 2-3 sessions/week
Intermediate: 3-4 sessions/week
Advanced: 4-7 sessions/week
Ask yourself: “According to my goals and current fitness level, how often should I exercise?”
Intensity– This refers to how hard the work is performed. This can be affected by many different factors such as amount of resistance or weight used, the speed or power exerted, changes in the sets and reps, amount of rest time, etc.
Set and repetition ranges
Power: 3-6 sets of 1-5 reps
Strength: 3-5 sets of 3-8 reps
Hypertrophy: 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps
Muscular Endurance: 3-4 sets of 15+ reps
Ask yourself: “According to my goal, how (heavy should I lift?, far/fast should I run?, many sets and reps should I complete? etc.)?
Time–This refers to the amount of time spent during an exercise session. Depending on the intensity and type of exercise, your exercise sessions should be anywhere between 45min-80min.
Ask yourself: “According to my goal, how long should I exercise?” or “How much time do I have to exercise today?”
Type –This refers to the kind of exercises performed to help you achieve your goals.
Example: If your goal is strength or hypertrophy, then you would do strength-building exercises such as squats, deadlifts, and bench presses (also known as compound lifts: exercises involving 2 or more joints and muscle groups).
Ask yourself: “According to my goal, what type of exercise movements or type of running should I do?”
Here are the benefits of creating your own program:
Your goals – The plan you create is great because it is customized to you and your goals and abilities.
Structured plan – Structured planning leads to consistency with leads to lifelong
changes.
Injury prevention – Having an exercise plan helps with strengthening your body, greatly decreasing your risk for injury.
You can allow yourself variability – having days, where your program can get stale, will happen, that’s why you have the freedom to slightly change your exercise. Having this ability decreases the risk of overtraining syndrome.
If you have additional questions about the F.I.T.T Principle or would like to talk to someone at Home Base about setting your own exercise program, visit www.homebase.org/fitness to get in touch with our Warrior Health & Fitness Team.