There are three basics parts that all fitness plans should include; Cardio Exercise, Strength Training, & Flexibility Training.

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Cardio Exercise is a vital part of fitness that makes you feel good, helps to lower many health risks, assists in maintaining a healthy weight and strengthens your heart and lungs. Cardio can be any form of exercise that increases your heart rate to 60-90% of your estimated max. To calculate maximum heart rate you subtract your age from 220. For Instance if you are 30yrs old your maximum HR is 190, and a good cardio exercise should keep your heart rate at 70-80% of your max; which in this case would be 133-152 BPM. Cardio should be done 3-6 times per week and for at least 10 mins for beginners, however we do not see gains in cardiovascular strength until you can hold your HR in the 70-80% range for at least 20 mins.  Lastly, keep in mind that cardio should be fun!! Find something that you enjoy to do that gets your heart going and stick with that. Cardio can be riding a bike, hiking, jogging, rollerblading etc., as long as your heart rate is where it needs to be.

Strength Training. Next we have strength training, also known as resistance training (lifting weights). This is repetitive movement against some sort of outside resistance, normally in the form of weights or resistance bands.  This type of training helps to strengthen bones, tendons and ligaments as well as muscles.

When strength training your goal should be to do 3 sets of an exercise with 8-15 repetitions in each set.  If you cannot get to this many reps or this many sets the weight it most likely too heavy.

The Five Major Muscle Groups. There are five major muscle groupings that are important to focus on: arms, chest, back, core, and legs. You should rotate muscle groups that you work so that each grouping is worked at least twice a week. Keep in mind it is important to work opposing (antagonist, not synergist) muscle groups on the same days.  For instance you would not want to work your triceps and your chest on the same day, because when you train your chest you are already tiring out your triceps since they are a synergistic muscle that aids in the pushing (Chest press) motion.  You should pick 2 of the 5 muscle groupings and work those and always add in core exercises for your third group for that day, as the core is our most important muscle group and can be trained every time you exercise.

Be careful to avoid over training where muscles can become weakened along with tendons and ligaments and you can become more susceptible to tears or sprains.  Beginners should train no more that 3 times per week until they get comfortable with the exercises and get a feel for how their body reacts to resistance training.

Flexibility Training.  Stretching properly allows our muscles to heal properly after we break them down during exercise. Not stretching can create adhesions within our muscles that lead to postural distortions and injury. You should stretch all of the 5 muscle groups that are listed in the weight training section and our weekly blogs.  You should stretch at least 3 times per week and ideally 7 times per week.  You will want to hold a static stretch for 30 seconds, remembering not to bounce as that can lead to tears but stretch the muscle slowly and stay as motionless as possible while focusing on relaxing and elongating that muscle.  On a scale of 1-10, 10 being painful you should always be stretching between 5-7; the pain is your body’s way of telling you to stop.

We will continue to add exercises to our blog to help you put your workout together.

Here is a sample of 2 different workouts, each working different muscle groups and the opposing muscle. You can rotate these two workouts for a week or two but then you will want to add different exercises for each muscle group to make your workout more effective as the weeks go on.

Arms: Bicep Curls

Chest: Incline Chest Press

Core: Plank

Back: Lat Pull-Downs

Legs: Heel Pull Reverse Lunge

Arms: Rio’s

Chest: Wide push-ups (can be performed on the knees)

Core: Vups

Back: Back Fly’s

Legs: Squats

View our previous blog posts to see pictures of some of these exercises or search Google to see how the exercise is performed.

Please contact us if you have questions or want to learn more about our weight loss programs or Botox and Fillers: 

• To reach our AZ Clinics, call 602-374-7226 (2 Clinics in Mesa and Phoenix) 
• To reach our NM Clinics, call 505-888-9575 (3 Clinics in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, and Santa Fe) or 575-222-4994 (Las Cruces)
• To reach our TX Clinic, call 214-296-0269 (Dallas)