You have probably heard that you need regular exercise to maintain a healthy weight. The problem is you are busy so it’s difficult to stick to your exercise routine. Workout flexibility is the key to my exercise consistency.
A well-balanced workout ideally includes aerobics, strength training, and flexibility and balance exercises. Here’s my workout overview:
Saturday or Sunday (aerobic): Gardening (Minimum: 1 hour). Repeatedly lifting, hauling, and going from squatting to standing is quite a workout!
Monday and Wednesday – Gym (aerobic, strength training, and flexibility & balance): Maximize gym time by doing aerobic and strength training exercises.
· Warm up and cool down: Stretching, minimum 5 minutes.
- · Aerobics: Race-walk on treadmill. 3-3.5 miles per hour (mph), 4.0 incline, minimum 25 minutes (including warm up and cool down).
Exercise bike (level 4), minimum 70 revolutions per minute (rpm), minimum 25 minutes (including warm up and cool down).
- · Strength Training: Free weight exercises, work on balance and flexibility.
Three sets with 15-30 second rests between each exercise.
Bench press 35 pounds (10 repetitions), bicep curls 20 pounds (10 repetitions), shoulder press 30 pounds (10 repetitions), lat pulldown 60 pounds (10 repetitions), abdominal crunches on a 30 degree slant board (20 repetitions), reverse crunches (20 repetitions), and calf raises 50 pounds (20 repetitions).
Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday (aerobic, flexibility and balance): Martial arts, 1-2 hours.
- · Warms ups: Stretching, shadow boxing, and jumping rope.
- · Punching, kicking, defense drills, free sparring, weapons training, and/or ground work. Breaks between activities are 30 seconds to one minute, no sitting.
Alternate Workouts (aerobic, strength training, flexibility and balance)
When I can’t make it to class or to the gym, I work out at home. This alternate workout helps me maintain workout consistency.
- · Power walk and hand weights: Carry 1or 3 pound weights, minimum 1 hour.
Hand weight exercises: Three sets of 20 repetitions of each: bicep curls, shoulder presses, tricep pulls, deltoid flys, and straight punches. About one minute break between exercises, continue to carry weights until time is up.
- · Alternate exercise: If I need to work out indoors, hand weight exercises while marching in place, minimum 30 minutes. No breaks between exercises, do 30 high knee raises between exercises.
Having a flexible workout schedule has worked for me. Hopefully, being creative and having a flexible workout routine will work for you too!
