Fitness for health

A lot of people out there are wanting to either gain weight or lose weight. There are a few though that want to remain where they are while being more physically active. Well stay the samers, I've got a little treat for ya! As requested here is a routine for someone who is looking to build a healthy lifestyle without growing or shrinking.

There are a few different ways to approach this routine and I'm going to leave the fine details up to you. For instance you could do 1 day of weights and 2 days of cardio, 2 days of weights and no cardio, or even 1 day weights 1 day cardio.

My suggestion would be to do 1 day of weights and 2 days of cardio. This way you can build a strong healthy body, increasing your lean muscle mass while decreasing your body fat by the same amount.

Day 1

Pushups, squats, bent over rows in this order 3 times with a 2 min break between each series (a series is 1 set of each exercise ie. 1 set of pushups, 1 set of squats, 1 set of bent over rows = 1 series)

take a 5 min break

deadlift, hamstring curl, glute bridge in this order 3 times 2 min break between each series

This should take 30 - 35 minutes. Get in get out and enjoy the rest of your day. It'll work your whole body quite well :)

Day 2 rest

Day 3

Cardio 45 min - 1 hr.

Day 4

Cardio 45 min - 1 hr

Days 5, 6 and 7 are all rest days. If you feel you need to separate your cardio, that's fine. You can do them on day 3, 4, 5 and 6. Avoid doing them on days 2 and 7 though as it can burn out your weight lifting days.

For cardio I'd really like to stress swimming if you can. It's a great full body cardio exercise. If you can't get into a pool regularly try doing lower body on one day (running/biking) and upper body on the other (boxing or eliptical).

Balancing nutrition is really important in this routine. With the two days of cardio 2 things could happen: your appetite increases or it remains the same. If your appetite increase you will have to gauge how much is appropriate before you start to gain weight. If you notice your weight going up too fast, lower your calories a bit. If your weight starts to drop then increase your daily calorie intake.

If your appetite remains the same you will most likely start to lose weight. This is when it gets tough I find because you have to force yourself to eat more than you're comfortable with. If you find forcing yourself to eat more than you're used to too difficult, try reducing your cardio to once a week. increasing your appetite would be more beneficial however because you'll be able to do more cardio. More cardio will equate to a healthy body and happier you.

This is a fairly versatile routine because you can move your cardio days around your regular life and weight lifting is only 30 minutes! If you have any questions drop them in the comments and I'll be sure to answer.