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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!
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Congrats on the weight loss, and maintainence. The good thing about maintaining a set-point is that you have leaway to juggle and experiment with the workouts. I know 45 minutes to 1 hour is the recommended, but to add spice you could now do a shorter workout mixed amongst some longer ones. When I'm at the maintainence level, I normally just ease back on things, but not to a great degree, mostly because I just like feeling fit. As Stik has mentioned it does depend on the exercise in question, some exercises can get great results in a few minutes, although longer duration is also a bonus and can complement the shorter exercise times. I like to mix it up, but I tend to prefer HIIT these days, because the time flies by for me. But doing one session if 1 hour, one of 45 minutes, and one of 25 minutes HIIT, with weight training on the days in between would be my ideal. Thoug I', currently doing two HIIT and one longer, but it's sport specific which is why it's been altered that way. Warm-up and cool-downs do tend to make a 30 minute session run over to 40 to 45 minutes, and as already mentioned are important, which I feel you already know, especially since you've been using DVD workouts, which normally take a person through those areas. I think ciruit training is considered cardio, and it can also cover weights done in a circuit, or be fully cardiovascular based ciruit training too, so yes, I would say they are cardio in some degree...
10 minute workouts are great if you have little time, or even do the workout 2 times a day, and 10 minutes is always better than none, so they have their place. A 10 minute workout done 3 times is kind of a circuit training system
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