Please Read First

This fitness plan is designed with the assumption that you have not been exercising on a regular basis recently. Your goal to begin with for this plan is 3, 30 minute workouts per week for each family member. Ideally, you will each do 10 minutes of cardiovascular exercise such as running in place, walking, walking up and down stairs, or jumping rope. In some cases, you may not be able to continuously perform the exercise for 10 consecutive minutes but that is OK. Take a breather when necessary and begin again if you are able.

After 10 minutes of cardio, go to the Exercise Videos on the menu above for strength training, using primarily body weight. Select several of the warm-up videos to begin, warming up for 3-5 minutes. Next, move on to Month One Videos and complete all five exercises, doing 2-3 sets of each exercise at 8-12 repititions. You should be able to do this in 5-7 minutes. If you need more time, that is fine. We want to make sure we are elevating our heart rate and getting some good exercise but at the same time not overly exert ourselves and possibly cause injury or become too sore to work out later in the week.

Again, most of the strength exercises on the videos are designed to use your body weight with no fitness equipment necessary. In a few you can use a light weight dumbbell or even a soup can or something similar to add resistance.

Wrap up your workout with the Cool Down video and then about 3-5 minutes of gentle stretching, again shown in the Stretching video.

Again, plan on doing your workout 3 times a week, approximately 30 minutes each. This will help you develop a good base to build on for weight loss and better general health and wellness. As you progress, add more of any of the three components as you are able to.

It is a good idea to plan ahead what days you are going to exercise, building it into your schedule and then just following through on it just like any other activity you have planned. If you have a favorite TV show you watch for 30 minutes each week, try going through your workout routine in front of the TV and get in your exercise while watching TV.

Another fitness option for you is to visit www.myyogaonline.com by going to our main menu and clicking on their button for professional videos on yoga, pilates and stress reduction and meditation. Be sure and check out their demo page. Subscription is required.

How you do it or when is up to you. Just make a plan and stick with it. GOOD LUCK!!