Free Exercise Plans - Tips for Maximizing Exercise

Exercise is an essential component to living a healthy lifestyle. Healthy eating is only half of the equation. Whether you want to lose weight, maintain weight, or gain lean muscle, exercise is absolutely crucial to accomplishing your fitness goals.

There are a ton of benefits to exercising...it will help you:

1. Lose, gain, or maintain weight (depending on your fitness goals)
2. Sleep better
3. Lower your risk of a host of diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer
4. Improve your resistance to infection and illnesses
5. Feel better about yourself

I have put together some great free exercise plans and advice about all types of exercise. Whatever activity you choose, the key is consistency. Aim for 30 to 60 minutes of moderately intense physical activity at least 4-5 days each week. Moderately intense activity or exercise should increase your heart and breathing rates…the more you sweat, the more calories you’ll burn. However, if you’re just starting off, walking a couple miles per day is a great way to begin.

Once you feel that you are past the "beginner" stage, I recommend trying to exercise a little bit every day. Most of us are busy people though and sometimes it’s hard to squeeze in a workout. Even if you’re strapped for time and can only get in 15 minutes of jogging, riding your bike, lifting weights, or yoga, a little each day is better than nothing and those 15 minute workouts really start to add up when you do them consistently.

Always remember that a healthy diet and exercise go hand in hand. Following a few healthy eating guidelines will ensure that you're maximizing the benefits of exercise.

For men, by far the best program I have seen and have also personally found the most success with is Jason Ferruggia's Muscle Gaining Secrets program. Jason is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Consultant who writes for Men's Health and Men's Fitness and has trained some really famous athletes with this program and IT WORKS!

For women, Turbulence Training is a proven workout program endorsed by Jillian Michaels from the Biggest Loser and it definitely earns my 5-star rating for any woman looking to jump start fat loss.

Check out the links below for some excellent resources that will teach you about all different types of exercise, including exercises you can do at home without any equipment, cardio exercises, weight lifting exercises, medicine ball exercises, core exercises, ab exercises, and how many calories you burn doing different types of exercises.

Calorie Burning Chart:
You need to burn 3,500 calories in order to lose one pound of body fat. Click on the link to see some great charts that show the estimated number of calories burned while performing a variety of exercises for one hour. Calorie expenditure varies widely depending on the exercise, intensity level and individual, but this should give you a general idea of how many calories you are burning. The calorie burning chart goes hand-in-hand with the nutritional value calculator section.

Best Ab Exercises:
The very best ab exercises for weight loss. Different exercises are categorized by level of difficulty (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced).

Free Exercises To Do At Home:
Here are some great exercises that you can do at home for FREE, with no equipment necessary. If you don’t want to pay for an expensive gym membership and want to get more exercise, check out this list for some excellent tips.

Weight Lifting Exercises:
Lifting weights can help you build lean muscle and burn more body fat. Here are some of the best weight lifting exercises that everyone should incorporate into their exercise routine.

Office Exercises:
Some great exercises and stretches that you can do while at the office.

Core Exercises:
An in depth list with instructions for the most effective core building exercises. Working your core is absolutely key to building a strong foundation and stripping away fat from your midsection.

Medicine Ball Exercises:
Medicine balls are fantastic tools for building a strong core, which is the foundation of the body. This page talks about the “best of the best” medicine ball exercises and how to do them.

Free BMI Calculator:
A Body Mass Index calculator and what you need to know about the BMI measurement. This number is often a good indicator that you need to get more exercise or start a healthy diet plan.

Next: Calorie Burning Chart

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