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Starting to Exercise

There are many options when you start exercising, and there is no best exercise. All types of exercise can improve your health, so  find an activity you enjoy and stick to it. The most important thing will be to commit to a routine of movement and work on progressing. It is important to “start low and go slow” first. You may need to consider a backup plan for days when weather is not good or your schedule changes. 

Frequency | First increase how often you exercise. Try to do something every day- that way if you miss one or two days you will still have reached the goal of 5. You may only do 5 minutes, but that’s okay! 

Duration | Then work on increasing how long you exercise, working up to 30 minutes, and eventually 60 minutes a day. 

Intensity | As you get more  fit, increase how hard you work out by going faster, going up hills, adding weights or doing intervals.

Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans 

  • We should all move more and sit less throughout the day.
  • All adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate – intensity exercise a week. 300 minutes a week is ideal for health benefits. 300 minutes a week has also been shown to help people who lose weight keep it off long term. If you are doing vigorous exercise, shorter amount of times are acceptable. 
  • Resistance training should be done at least 2 days a week. This can be done with weights, bands, or body weight.

Light-intensity | walking slowly, household chores (2-3/ 10 intensity) 

Moderate-intensity | walking briskly, raking the yard, playing tennis, biking (5-6/ 10 intensity) 

Vigorous-intensity | jogging or running, shoveling snow, strenuous  tness class (7-8 /10 intensity) 

Warmups and Cools Downs (these count towards your minutes!) 

Warmup | Make sure to take 5-10 minutes when you begin to get some light aerobic exercise (like walking, jogging, stretching) in to gradually increase heart rate to prime your muscles for the workout. 

Cool Down | Once your workout is complete, try to stretch for 5-10 minutes focusing on muscles used the most during the workout. This will help with post-workout soreness and reduce the risk for injury