How to Develop an Aerobic Exercise Routine You Can Stick To

Regardless of the exercise routine you develop, you must enjoy it.  If you ‘must do something’ and you don’t find a way to enjoy it, you will quickly stop doing it.  Some helpful ideas follow:

Step 1:  Find something that you enjoy to begin your routine.  Treat it like a cup of ‘exercise’ coffee to jump start your program.  Do you like bike riding or jumping rope? Do 5 minutes, just to get you into the exercise mood.

Step 2:  Develop a routine that you can easily add to.  If you do the same routine over and over your body gets conditioned to it and it works less effectively.  If you start on a treadmill with an incline of zero at 2.5 miles per hour, then increase the incline steadily while also increasing the speed.  It doesn’t have to be done in the session, but set a goal for increasing them after each week.  Begin your routine with 10 minutes, add 5 minutes each week as you progress.  As you increase the incline and speed while your duration increases as well.

Step 3: Work to raise your heart rate.  It is suggested that you should target your heart rate to between 60-85%. You can find many on line calculations to use for your specific age.  One of the ways to increase your heart rate to get closer to your target heart rate is to add arm exercises while being on the treadmill.  Some people find this easier to do than increasing the incline or adding speed.

Step 4:  Add circuit training to your exercise routine.  This is a group of 6-15 exercises that you do, one after the other, with little rest in between.  Have a trainer work with you to develop one that will work the best for you.

Step 5: Stretch before you begin and stretch when you cool down. 

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