Which types of exercise when

March 26, 2023 9:53 PM

I plan to exercise more. I would also like to be more methodical about which types of exercise when. That’s where you come in.

Let’s say I will typically exercise five times a week for up to half an hour. Some weeks or days it might be more or less. Right now, I am only doing about 10 minutes at a time, but something is better than nothing, and I expect to get back up to half an hour.

My question to you is, roughly how should I divide my exercise among the following types.
* Cardio: walking but not fast, HIIT routines from Paul Eugene, jumping jacks, jumping rope. The latter two I can only do a little at a time.
* Strength: full-body dumbbell workouts from darebee.com.
* Light yoga, flexibility, mobility or balance: The first two I get from darebee.com.. I get random mobility exericses online. I make up my own balance exercises and sometimes do them while I am killing time.

I exercise at home, except for the walking, which is usually just around the neighborhood.

I am a woman in my early 60s. I am overweight but have good blood pressure and pulse. My bones are somewhat weak, but I enjoy the jumping exercises.

My goal for this is just general fitness.

An appropriate answer would be something like: alternate strength and cardio, and do a little stretching every day. Or whatever schedule you recommend. An inappropriate answer would be to disregard my exercise choices.

posted by NotLost to Health & Fitness (12 answers total)

It's hard, even if you're an expert, to design a whole fitness program with the little information you've provided. it's great that you're starting to do exercise and 10 minutes a day is way better than nothing! Lots of people never get past the stage of 'thinking about doing some exercise'.

There are lots and lots of online tools and/or descriptions on how to put together an exercise program. Just a few in no particular order:
https://www.wholelifechallenge.com/how-to-design-your-own-workout-program-a-guide-for-beginners/
https://blog.nasm.org/workout-plan-for-beginners
http://positifity.com/how-to-create-a-workout-plan-for-beginners/
https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/how-to-build-your-own-workout-routine/

If you were to put together a draft of your exercise plan, I'm sure people would be happy to give you feedback, particularly on how it compares with their experience in starting exercise. I think you're on the right track looking to do a range of types of exercise, rather than just 'run as far as I can in 30 minutes every weekday', which will make you hurt a lot and destroy motivation very quickly.
posted by dg at 12:04 AM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

When I was doing a gym program with a trainer, Mondays were strength, Wednesdays were cardio. We were encouraged to do our own stuff outside of that. I think the Monday strength catered to the people who played weekend sport so were getting cardio then and needed a lighter day. We'd do a warm up of basic cardio (treadmill, bicycle, sometimes rower) and stretch at the end when muscles were warm.

So I'd definitely see if you can do some light warm up each time, space out strength and cardio, and definitely do stretching.

I'm inspired, thank you for this question!
posted by freethefeet at 2:28 AM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

This article has some good advice: https://www.self.com/story/heres-what-a-perfect-week-of-working-out-looks-like
posted by kinddieserzeit at 2:28 AM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

A friend of mine was a personal trainer for many years, and I once asked her what the best exercise plan was. She said "the one you stick with."

If you're just trying to exercise more, I would focus on finding the thing that makes you want to work out, whatever that might be; I hate exercising, but I like walking, so I got a Fitbit to see if the amount of walking around I do in a day does the job. Turns out it does, but on the days it doesn't I have that motivation to do just a bit more. And I'm thinking of joining a kayak program this summer for additional exercise.

But that's my point - for me, exercise that pretends it's something else is what works best for me because right now I hate "working out" for its own sake. For you, your motivation may be something different. (maybe it is a methodical plan.) Just don't forget to consider the warning sign of "I know I should do this, but I hate it and I'm going to make excuses to skip it".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:16 AM on March 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: To clarify, I am already doing all of these things semi-regularly. I have done many of them somewhat more in the past. I made a mistake by leading with the idea of "more" exercise.

I am asking for advice on how best to distribute the exercise I am already doing, if I do 10 to 30 minutes a day on most days.
posted by NotLost at 5:04 AM on March 27, 2023

Best answer: I don't know enough to advise someone else what's best for them but what I do is... alternate strength and cardio each day, and follow each with a bit of yoga (which doubles as a "cool down"). And have at least one day off strength or big cardio a week (when I might just do yoga, or a walk, or nothing).

I often don't manage it every day, what with busy-ness or health or mood, but that's fine, so long as it's most days, and I mix it all up. Good luck!
posted by fabius at 5:19 AM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

The current standard advice for endurance athletes is the 80/20 rule: spend about 80 percent of your time training at a gentle pace, and 20 at harder, but most of that shouldn't be super hard either. You're not training for the Olympics, but I think it's a good general approach. Most of the time should be walking, at a brisk pace, which means breathing a bit hard but not exhausting you.

Then a HITT once a week, and strength training twice seems reasonable.

Maintaining balance is important, but my intuition is that that's something done better a few minutes every day, for example standing on one foot while brushing your teeth (and if that's easy, try it with your eyes closed).

There's no good evidence to support stretching, so don't worry about it unless you enjoy it or if your limited range of motion is affecting your daily activities (e.g., if you have trouble putting on shoes) or leading to pain or injury.

And echoing EmpressCallipygos: the best exercise is the one you do. The more you enjoy it, the more you'll do, and that's the crucial thing.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 6:57 AM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: There's no one perfect routine, especially for us normal folks who aren't training for a specific extreme goal like running a marathon or lifting a truck with our bare hands. You mentioned general fitness as your goal, so I think you're pretty much on track already.

Your example answer is a great baseline - "alternate strength and cardio, and do a little stretching every day." Maybe consider your third category (Light yoga, flexibility, mobility or balance) as the every day thing. Alternating is important because it lets you workout more frequently. Working the same muscle group for strength two days in a row is not efficient, as your muscles need time to recover between sessions.

Any more specific plan is going to depend on more specific goals. General Fitness means different things to different folks. Some will consider the strength part more important, others the cardio or mobility/balance more important.

If you're looking for a way to focus your plan a bit more, do you have any specific activities you'd like to train for? Like "I want to be able to lift and hold my grandchild/pet" or "I want to be able to briskly walk up that big hill in the park without taking a break"
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 6:57 AM on March 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Have you read Next Level, by Stacy Sims? It was helpful for me when I was coming up with my own training plan. You don't need to be a hardcore CrossFitter beast to get tips from the book.

Winging it, looking at what you like to do, I'd do something like:

Monday: jump rope
Tuesday: lift heavy things
Wednesday:jump rope
Thursday: walk (include elevation for your muscles and cardio)
Friday:jump rope, lift heavy things
Saturday: rest
Sunday: yoga / balance exercises
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:18 PM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you to everyone who actually answered the question that was asked. I appreciate your help, and you have given me some good options to consider.

Now on my list is to figure out whether it is really worthwhile to stretch. I am finding conflicting sources.
posted by NotLost at 8:05 PM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

One way to approach this is to think about which area (strength, endurance, flexibility) you're weakest in and prioritize that. For example, many women post-menopause have trouble with bone density--if this is you, then focus a bit more on strength (weights, load-bearing exercises). But if your bones are better than average, but your cardiovascular endurance is poor, then your focus should probably be more in that direction.

All three areas are necessary, but if you focus on what you're weakest in, you'll have the most room for improvement and likely the most noticeable/fastest improvement. Also, by raising your ability "floor" you're less likely to find yourself being held back overall. Exercise is definitely a case (unless you are an athlete in a particular sport) where being a "jack-of-all-trades, master of none, is still better by far, than master of one".
posted by radiogreentea at 8:07 PM on March 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

Mod note: One deleted; please make sure you are answering the question rather than just commenting about the general topic. The question: "roughly how should I divide my exercise among the following types ..."
posted by taz (staff) at 10:36 PM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]