Today we continue the Creating a Healthy Lifestyle mini-series, and it is about Exercise. This is what most folks seem to think is the hard part, but it’s actually the easiest part. It’s also the smallest factor of the three – mindset, nutrition, and exercise. Today I am going to give you the essentials of a comprehensive exercise routine and how you can create one that fits your schedule and that you enjoy.
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Last but not least, everything I am covering in this mini-series and more is in my e-book: Fit Phoenix 6-Week Slim Down. It is designed to give you all the tools you need to kick start your healthy lifestyle. It is packed with great information, resources, and guidance. It includes all the workbook materials I touched on in last week’s episode, so you can clarify your why, set clear intentions, and goals and commit to your healthier lifestyle. It has the intuitive, whole food eating plan and weekly meal plans and recipes, and it has a core workout for the 6-weeks, plus a bonus booty builder workout. Tons of value at a great price, so grab your copy today. Link is in the description or you can grab through the link tree link in my bio, it is the first link there. Alright, let’s dive into today’s topic.
This is the third chapter in the Creating a Healthy Lifestyle miniseries. Today is all about exercise, specifically essentials of a comprehensive exercise routine. In the previous two episodes I covered mindset and nutrition, so go check those out if you missed them.
As a quick refresher there are 3 primary components to weight loss or body transformation mindset, nutrition, and exercise. It is 100% mindset, 80% food, and 20% exercise. For whatever reason, it seems like many people’s perceptions are that it is 90% exercise 10% food and mindset is hardly mentioned or thought of.
If you don’t have the mindset, pushing through the workouts is going to be tough and controlling what you eat through each day will be even more challenging. Since it is so important, I will quickly re-cap when it comes to fitness mindset, you need: motivation (aka your why), affirmation (how you speak to yourself/about yourself), direction (intentions and goals), and integrity or commitment. The more you put into this before you begin your weight loss or body transformation journey, the better you’re going to do. This is the secret sauce that has kept me showing up for myself for 8 years, not matter what.
Alright, so exercise, what does a good exercise routine look like? Well, it includes each of the following:
- Strength training: lifting weights, body weight workouts, functional training, and others.
- Cardio: steady state, high intensity interval training (HIIT) – EMOM or Tabata.
- Active recovery: endurance training, walking, low-impact cardio.
- Stretching.
Over the course of 30 years, I have tried all the things, including workouts. It all started when I was 14 years old and fed up with being bullied about my weight. Being this was in the early 1990s, this meant I went on a low-fat diet and my exercise routine consisted of cardio. I used my parents’ ancient exercise bike for 45 minutes every day after school.
After high school, I graduated to cardio kickboxing. Anyone else remember Tae Bo? I still love cardio kickboxing the most thanks to Billy Blanks and those home workout videos. However, about 6 weeks in an I hit a wall with my weight loss. This ultimately led to when I joined a gym for the first time and started lifting weights. That was when I really started to transform my body.
I still had a lot to learn, like the importance of rest as well as balancing weight lifting with other things like cardio, recovery, and stretching. 30 years of trying all the things has taught me to make sure my workout routine includes all these components we are diving into. So let’s get into it.
- Strength training: lifting weights, body weight workouts, functional training, and others.
Everyone has their preferences, so I say find your preferred strength training approach and start there. If you want to transform your body then weight lifting or some form of strength training is critical. You want to work every major muscle group every week. There are various ways you can structure your workouts to do this, depending on your schedule. For example, you can do full body workouts 3 times a week. If you want to do more you can find various workout schedules for 4-day, 5-day, or 6-day splits. You can workout at home or the gym. - Cardio: steady state, high intensity interval training (HIIT) – EMOM or Tabata. It will vary from person to person. Depending on your body type and metabolism, you will want to do less or more cardio. In general, if you have a harder time losing weight and have more weight to lose (about 20 pounds or more) then cardio is an essential component and you will want to include it most days of the week to maximize weight loss. In contrast, if you have less to lose and tend to have a harder time gaining weight, less cardio may be a better approach for you.
There are different types of cardio. Steady state is generally done 30-60 minutes at about 60% of your maximum heart rate. This is indicated as the “fat burning” heart rate on most fit bits or exercise watches. Another type is HIIT, which are done in short bursts, no more than 20 minutes. They are comprised of short bursts at maximum heart rate, followed by rests or lower effort bursts. Some examples are every minute on the minute or Tabata. The benefit to these is that you burn fat up to 48 hours after the workout. - Active recovery: endurance training, walking, low-impact cardio. These are characterized by lower weight, higher rep strength training workouts with some moderate cardio woven in. The idea is to help build muscular endurance while also helping workout some of the lactic acid that builds up during more intense workouts. Alternatively, you could add longer walks at moderate pace or lower impact or moderate cardio workouts 1-2 times a week, between strength training days.
- Stretching. Last but not least, it is important to include at least one dedicated stretching workout every week, if not a couple times. These are a great evening workout to help with managing stress, improving flexibility, and unwinding before bedtime.
So, those are the essential components of a comprehensive exercise routine. There are countless ways to structure a routine that fits your schedule. For example, you could do your strength training first thing in the morning and add your cardio at lunchtime or in the evening. Another way you could do it is have 3 strength training days, 2 cardio days, one active recovery day and one stretch day. It doesn’t have to be hours to start. You could start with 30 minutes a day and work up from there.
I am helping share ways to make this feasible so you can see how easy it can be during my 5-day Back-to-School Fitness Challenge, starting next Monday, September 9. Get into my free Facebook group to participate. There will be prizes too!
I also cover all this and more in my e-book: Fit Phoenix 6-week Slim Down. Grab your copy and get instant access today!
Alright, friends, that’s it for today’s episode. We will continue this series next week. Follow along with the series to start creating your healthy lifestyle today. If you follow what I have laid out in the series or my e-book, you will get results. I know this because I live by it and I have helped others get results as well. So, get started today, because you’ll thank yourself in just a few months’ time.
As always, thanks so much for stopping by! Keep pursuing faith, fitness, and joy!