Whether you’re a professional fitness instructor or just a regular fitness enthusiast, a well-balanced fitness training routine should include the five elements of good health, Flexibility/stretching, strength training, core exercise, aerobic fitness and balance training.
Aerobic fitness
Aerobics or better known as endurance or cardio activity are the foundation of most fitness training regimens. Aerobic exercise causes faster and deeper breathing, giving more oxygen in your bloodstream going to your muscles and back to your lungs. The more aerobic exercise you do, the more efficient your lungs and heart transport oxygen all over the body. Because of good oxygen circulation, our body can efficiently complete physical tasks like walking or running. Aerobic or cardio exercise includes any activity that increases your heart rate and uses large muscle groups. It includes: biking, swimming, jogging, running or even simple household chores like shoveling snow, raking the leaves in the backyard or cleaning your house.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, healthy adults should at least have 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise or activity per week and at least 75 minutes per week if you are doing vigorous aerobic activity. You have to spread out your aerobic activities during the course of the week, or you can do a short ten-minute activity per day. You can also try high-intensity training that involves a short burst of intense exercises with small periods of light activities. For example, you can do jogging for 1 minute, then switch to leisure walking for at least 2 minutes, then back to jogging, so on and so forth.
Strength training
Another critical component of fitness training programs is muscular fitness. It helps you increase your body’s bone and muscular strength. This training program can help you tone your body and lose weight. It can also give your body strength to do everyday activities. Make sure to do strength training to all primary muscle groups in your body at least thrice a week. You can use a different resistance machine like free weights to improve your strength, but it does not mean you need to go to the gym to do strength training. You can use homemade weights like a sack of sand, five-gallon container filled with water or a block of wood. You can also do push-ups, pull-ups, crunches or leg squats to improve your core strength.
Core exercises
Core muscles are muscles in your lower back, pelvis or abdomen that connects your lower and upper body movement and help protect the back of your body. A well-rounded fitness training regimen always includes core strength training. Core exercises train your core muscles to be more effective in protecting your spine and enable your lower and upper body muscle to perform better. You can do full body planks, sit-ups, bridges or ball exercises.
Balance exercises
Balance training, as the name suggests, can improve a person’s balance. This exercise is good for older people because balance tends to deteriorate when you get older, and it helps them improve their stability and avoid injuries. Balance exercise benefits both young and old people. It helps stabilize our core muscles.
(Visit https://www.mayoclinic.org for balance exercises you can do at home.)
Flexibility/Stretching
One of the most critical aspects of physical fitness regimen is flexibility and stretching. It is good to include this in your fitness program because stretching exercises can help increase your body’s flexibility and can make it easier for you to do everyday activities that will require flexibility. Stretching can also improve our joint’s range of motion and prevents a problem with our body’s posture. It can also help us release tension and stress. It is imperative to do stretching before doing any exercises to help your body warm up. If you want to stretch before a heavy workout, you can do light walking for 10 minutes, 2 minutes stretching, and you can do your regular exercise routine. It is advisable to do stretching before doing any exercise. You can do stretching at least three times a week to maintain flexibility. Activities like yoga or tai chi can help with your body’s flexibility.
Cover the bases
When you are creating your exercise regimen, your plan should include at least three of the said elements. Incorporate core exercise, aerobic fitness, balance training, and flexibility/stretching into your program. It is not necessary to do all five elements all at once. But doing at least three can help promote good health.