Achieving total fitness is a must to live a long, healthy, energized life. Five components need to be included in your workout for it to be complete. They include warm up, cardiovascular training, strength training, cool down and stretching.

In order to allow the muscles to warm up, you need to spend a few minutes exercising slowly. This allows the muscle tissue to warm up gradually.

Your cool down time should be similar to the warm up. Slow down the previous activity, allowing your heart rate to come back down to normal. After cooling down, end with a stretching routine that allows each main muscle group to be flexed and held.

Cardiovascular training is accomplished by working hard enough to elevate the heart rate to a training target level. At Curves, we have everyone check their heart rate every eight minutes. This ensures that you are working hard enough to get the cardiovascular benefit at a safe yet effective level. It is not necessary to increase your target heart rate percentage as you get in shape. As your physical conditioning im­proves, you will have to work harder to raise your heart rate to its target level.

Sustained target heart rate activity conditions your body to access fat for energy. During the first few minutes of exercise, your muscles will primarily burn energy in the bloodstream and glycogen stored in the muscles. As you continue to exercise, your body will begin to access more fat stores for energy. Sustained exercise will continue to burn more fat and your body will become more proficient at accessing body fat as you exercise on a regular basis.

Strength training has long been the missing link in women’s fitness. Holding a one-pound dumbbell during an aerobic class was once considered to be strength training. True strength training requires that you move a resistance that is greater than the muscle is accustomed to. Progressive resistance stimulates the muscle to stay strong and firm.

Increasing the speed of a movement on our machines provides this progressive resistance. The faster you go, the harder it is because you are moving more fluid through a restricted orifice in the cylinders. You should move the resistance as fast as you are able. This assures that you are “overloading muscles and achieving the benefits of strength training.”

Dr. Wayne Westcott, a researcher for YMCA of America, reported that if you combine aerobic and strength training you will lose 300 percent more body fat and gain metabolically active muscle, than by doing aerobic alone.

Strong muscles provide the support for joints and vertebrae that keep your body stable and working properly. Bone density increases as a result of load bearing activities. If you are strength training as you lose weight, your body prioritizes muscle tissue and burns more body fat. By protecting muscle mass as you lose weight, you are more likely to reach your weight loss goals and to maintain them.

(Source: Curves Member Guide.)