Walking

The first step is to start of slow and easy. Walk for ten minutes and come back. Everyday keep building upon what you have already done. The trick to exercising is to keep doing it and not give up. All you need is some comfortable clothes, good pair of gym shoes and willpower.

WATCH your posture. Walk tall. Think of elongating your body. Hold your head up and eyes forward. Your shoulders should be down, back and relaxed. Tighten your abdominals and buttocks and fall into a natural stride.

Be sure to drink plenty of water before, during, and after walking. Incorporate a warm up, cool down and stretches into your routine. Start your walk at a slow warm up pace, stop and do a few warm up stretches. Then walk for the desired length of time. End your walk with the slower cool down pace and stretch well. Stretching will make you feel great and assist in injury prevention.

The toughest thing about starting a fitness program is developing a habit. Walking daily will help (a minimum of 5 days a week is a good goal). You should walk fast enough to reach your target heart rate, but you should not be gasping for air.

After you have formed the habit you will want to evaluate your program and your goals.

If you are walking for the general health benefits try to walk 30 minutes a day, most days of the week, at a "talking" pace.

To improve cardiovascular fitness walk 3 to 4 days a week, 20 to 30 minutes at a very fast pace - breathing hard but not gasping for air.

If you are walking for weight loss you should walk a minimum of five days a week, 45 to 60 minutes at a "purposeful/talking" pace.

If you're new to walking, start off with slow, short sessions and build your way up gradually. If you have any health concerns or medical conditions, be sure to check with your doctor for advice before you begin a routine.

Once you can comfortably walk for 30 to 60 minutes 5 to 6 days a week you may want to put more speed into your routine. Follow these easy tips for walking.

Aerobics

The term "aerobics" refers to a series of rhythmic, large muscle exercises, usually done to music in a class led by an instructor. However, for many people it's much more than that: it's music, a movement, a philosophy, a lifestyle. On the one hand, it's a modern form of total body exercise. On the other hand, it's a motivating form of exercise that is social and fun.

Aerobics is a cardiovascular workout that improves coordination, muscle strength and mobility. It also improves your physiological and functional capacities, promoting general well-being.

Aerobics provides a whole host of health benefits: it burns calories; reduces the risk of cardiac diseases by lowering blood pressure and slowing down atherosclerotic processes; improves aerobic fitness, muscular endurance and flexibility and mobility; improves muscular strength, posture and body performance in all age groups; reduces stress and increases self-esteem by helping with weight management. With a wide range of styles and classes offered at almost every major gym and fitness center, aerobics caters to the individual needs of exercisers, motivating people of all ages to participate and enjoy its benefits.

But because there are so many different options, you should review the following sections carefully to figure out what kind of aerobics class would be best for you.

Before you start doing aerobics, think about your exercise goals. Are you most interested in weight management, overall fitness, improved endurance, muscle toning, improved posture, general well-being or relieving stress? You should choose your aerobics classes based on your goals. Since different types of classes can help achieve different ends, talk to instructors to find out what would work best for your needs.

When choosing a gym or health club, compare their facilities, class selection and instructors’ qualifications. Getting a friend to sign up and plan an exercise routine with you can be especially motivating!

Plan your weekly workout schedule in advance. If you miss a scheduled class, try to find time to make it up another day, and remember that after a two-week break you’ll probably have to start up again at a slightly lower intensity than you’d worked up to. The more regular your workouts, the better your results, but don’t forget to give your body sufficient rest between workout sessions. Doing aerobics every other day is generally better than every day, with five to six days a week at a maximum.

There are a wide variety of aerobics classes you can choose from, but you’ll be best able to pick if you’re familiar with the criteria.

Level of intensity – Classes are generally intended for either beginner, intermediate or advanced exercisers. If you’re a beginner, you probably shouldn’t take advanced classes, since it’s no fun struggling to keep up with the rest of the group! (And you could injure yourself by trying too hard.) Talk to your instructor when you feel you’re ready to move up to the next class level, so you get a professional perspective on your progress.

Impact – Aerobics is usually classified into two sub-categories:

High-impact, meaning that both feet regularly lose contact with the floor, as with running, jumping and hopping.

Low-impact, meaning that at least one foot retains contact with the floor throughout the workout session.

Low-impact aerobics generally involves a smaller risk of injury than high-impact, because there’s considerably less stress on the feet and joints when you land. However, high-impact aerobics tends to offer a more rigorous and intensive workout.

While most gyms and health clubs today still offer classes called either "low" or "high" impact, it’s much more common to see the label "high-low" or "mixed-impact" on the class schedule. These classes alternate between low- and high-impact exercises for the optimal balance between a lower risk of injury and maximum workout intensity. Pure "low-impact" classes sometimes contain a greater variety of interesting and challenging moves and often emphasize traveling around the classroom to help bring the intensity level closer to that of high-impact classes. If you’re just starting to work out, you should look for lower intensity classes of 25-60 minutes that you can take at least three times a week. You shouldn’t find low-intensity aerobics very exhausting—it should feel equivalent to a brisk walk (or a jog, to a more experienced exerciser). The types of classes you might want to look out for may have names like beginners aerobics, easy step aerobics, low-impact aerobics and aqua aerobics.

If you’re a more experienced exerciser, you should look for medium intensity classes of 35-60 minutes that you can take at least four times a week. Medium intensity aerobics usually mixes high impact with very low impact and large ranges of motion. For a beginner, the intensity of these kinds of classes will feel equivalent to climbing stairs (or, for a more experienced exerciser, running after a bus). These types of classes may have names like high/low impact, step, circuit training and body sculpting.

If you´re an active exerciser, you should look for high intensity classes of 25-50 minutes that you can take at least five times a week. Look for class names like high/low impact, interval, athletic/power step and boxing aerobics

Running

Muscles Worked
Thighs (front) or Quadriceps, Thighs (back) or Hamstrings, Butt or Gluteus Maximus/Minimus, Abs (outside) or Serratus Anterior and Intercostals, Calves or Gastrocnemius and Soleus.

Position and Movement
Keep your body upright and your stomach tight. Your back foot should give a good push-off with each step. Keep your arms somewhat bent to make your strides more efficient.

Tip
Make sure you have a comfortable pair of running shoes that suit your individual needs.

Calories Burned
Jogging at a moderate intensity for 30 minutes can burn approximately 360 calories.

Mix in a Walk/Run
When new runners begin a running program, they often start by following a run-walk routine. They run for maybe 30 seconds, walk until they feel recovered, then repeat the process for 20 to 30 minutes. This system has proven successful a thousand times over.

When world-class runners peak for the Olympics, they concentrate on "interval" training--the still-unsurpassed method for achieving maximum results. They run hard for 1 to 5 minutes, then walk or jog very slowly until they're ready to run hard again.

When ultradistance runners participate in those seemingly crazy races of 100 miles or six days (and beyond), they inevitably alternate running and walking. Which only makes sense. It's hard to imagine any other way to cover the mega-mile distances.

Sprinting

While Running is a great activity to aid in fat loss, it has one drawback, it only speeds your up your metabolism while running and for a short period afterwards. If you would like your metabolism to fly at the speed of light 24 hours a day, I have a secret for you. It's called sprinting. Sprinting not only burns HUGE amounts of calories while sprinting, it also keeps your metabolism flying for days after. Sprinting combined with running / jogging can bring amazing results, especially when combined with a clean and healthy diet!

Benefits to sprinting Sprinting is an amazing exercise period. It is a great tool to help in fat loss, kill stress as well as increasing your metabolic rate for days. On top of all this, sprinting is a great exercise for your hamstrings and can help sculpt and tone those muscles you would kill to have.

How far should I sprint? I recommend doing 50m-100m sprints to start out. I recommend finding a 400m track and sprint for 50-100m, then walk at a brisk pace double what you just ran. I suggest doing upwards of 10 sprints per session. Beginners should probably cut that in half and work their way up to doing progressively more sprints.

How many days a week should I be sprinting? I suggest spreading your sprinting out evenly and doing it two times a week. I typically do mine on Mondays and Thursdays. It is imperative you leave enough time for recovery between each day as your muscles will need time to grow and heal. Not only will spreading it out help you recover faster it will also keep your metabolism peaked more evenly and prolong the effect.