Good morning!
I’m so excited that you are reading this blog post right now because it means you are either committed to making exercise and movement a part of your daily life or are at least considering it. I hope that this website will be a huge resource for assisting you as you progress in your fitness journey. Feel free to contact me with any future topics you would like to learn about!
There are three components of exercise that I would like to review with you and some of their benefits:
- Cardiovascular training (benefits include: weight loss, strengthening and protecting your heart, increasing stamina and energy, etc.)
- Strength training (benefits include: raising your resting metabolism, toning and building muscles, strengthening and protecting bones and muscles, etc.)
- Flexibility training (benefits include: releasing tension in muscles, creating more room for muscle growth, preventing injuries, etc.)
We will cover each of these components in much greater detail in later blog posts, but for today I just want to give you a very brief overview of how much time you should be spending in each of these components.
As a rule of thumb, you should allocate the following amounts of time to each component (the range is included to cover workouts ranging from 30 minutes to 60 minutes.)
- Warm-up/Cardiovascular training: 5-30 minutes
- Strength training: 15-35 minutes
- Flexibility training: 5-10 minutes
If you are looking to lose weight, you should spend more time doing cardio but should still incorporate some strength training into your program. If you are looking to get stronger or more muscular, you should spend more time doing strength training without completely neglecting cardio. Regardless of your goals, everyone should spend 5-10 minutes working on flexibility and stretching.
Bottom line: Make sure to incorporate all three components into your fitness program. Adjust the times you spend in cardio or strength training to your specific goals. Weight loss = more cardio while muscular gains = more strength training. Just don’t forget to stretch!!
If you’re looking for a personal trainer to travel to your home and you live in or around central Maryland, contact me here.
See you next time!
=)Mary