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Originally Posted by SharisMaria

Hi. I'm new to RWF, 45 years old and lost 40 pounds a couple years ago. Have been pretty successful so far keeping it off through diet and exercise, but always looking for ways to keep a little variety. My exercise pretty much consists of DVD workouts in the mornings. My question is: How long should my workouts be for maintaining good health? Is 20 minutes enough? I have some 10 minute workouts and wonder if they're even worth it? Or should I be more faithful with the 30 - 40 minutes or more workouts?

Any advice on types of exercise would be appreciated too. I try to alternate days between cardio and weight/toning exercises. But now I'm getting started with some circuit workouts; is that considered a cardio type workout?

Thanks!

Welcome to the forum SharisMaria! What a good job you've done losing and keeping off that weight!

I think the length of your workout depends on what your goal is. Some studies support a minimum of 25-30 minutes if it's cardiovascular benefits you're talking about.

Some exercises like rehabilitative activities that a physical therapist might assign could take very little time and still have some benefit.

I think to really build muscle there needs to be a warm up and a cool down and to full address at least one small region of the body that sort of workout would take at least 45 minutes to be done thoroughly.

Those are just my thoughts. I think the others on the forum will have a few as well to round out the feedback a bit.