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Live Science  Health

How to Start an Exercise Routine and

Stick to It
By Rachael Rettner, Senior Writer  |  May 20, 2016 07:28am ET

Credit: Andresr

If you're like a lot of people, you made a resolution to start exercising this year, but you
didn't see it through. Maybe you were too busy, afraid of hurting yourself or just hate going
to the gym.

If you fall into this camp, don't give up yet. Science has found a number of ways to boost
your chances of keeping up an exercise routine. To 䆀nd out the best way to start exercising,
Live Science consulted the latest exercise guidelines and interviewed experts in sports
 medicine and exercise physiology. We wanted to know how much exercise people need to
do to be healthy, what exercises they should do and how they can avoid injuries when
starting out.

Experts said that exercise doesn't need to be complicated or expensive; you don't have to
join a gym or buy new workout clothes to become more active. And there's no single
workout routine or type of exercise that's considered "the best." The most important thing is
that you like the activity you choose to do. This could be anything from walking or swimming
to taking a dance class.

"You should pick an exercise program that 䆀ts you," said Dr. Michael Jonesco, a sports
medicine physician at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. To start exercising,
you have to be willing to make a lifestyle change, he stressed. "You have to enjoy it. It has to
be a<ordable [and] reasonable within time constraints. That's the best exercise program for
anybody, because it's sustainable," Jonesco said.

Below, we'll review the basics of starting an exercise program. It's important to note that
although moderate physical activity, such as brisk walking, is safe for most people, if you
have a chronic health condition, or if you're worried about whether you're healthy enough
for exercise, you should speak with your doctor before beginning any exercise program. 

 TECH  HEALTH  PLANET EARTH  SPACE  STRANGE NEWS

How much exercise do you need?
TECH 
According to the most recent physical activity guidelines from the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), adults should get
HEALTH 101
150 minutes (2.5 hours) of moderate-intensity physical activity per
week.
 39There are many ways to divide up those 150 minutes over the
course of a0 week, but most experts recommend breaking up that time
 1  
PLANET EARTH
into 30 minutes of physical activity, 䆀ve days per week.
 452
MORE
But 
SPACE  you don't necessarily have to block out a continuous half-hour to
do your exercise for the day. As long as you're active for at least 10
minutes at a time, your activity will count toward your overall exercise
STRANGE NEWS 
for the day, said Dr. Edward Laskowski, co-director of Mayo Clinic
Sports Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota. For example, you could walk
ANIMALS for10 minutes before work, another 10 minutes during your lunch
hour and another 10 minutes after dinner, Laskowski said.
HISTORY 
"It doesn't have to be one single session" of exercise, Laskowski said.
"The more we do move [during the day], the better the health
HUMAN NATURE 
bene䆀ts," he said.

SHOP Indeed, a number of studies suggest that doing three separate 10-

minute bouts of exercise daily is just as good as getting 30 continuous
minutes of exercise. For example, a 2001 study of overweight women
         
 found that those who exercised in 10-minute bouts at a moderate
intensity, three times a day, saw just as much improvement in their
Here are tips to get
you started on an aerobic 䆀tness (as measured by VO2 max, or the maximum amount of
exercise routine. oxygen used by the body per minute) as those who exercised for 30
 Credit: Purch minutes all at once. Both groups also saw similar reductions in their
Creative Ops
weight over 12 weeks.

It's not yet clear if bouts of exercise that are even shorter than 10
minutes, but that still add up to 30 minutes a day (for example, six 5-minute workouts) can
be recommended to bene䆀t health. However, some recent studies suggest that such shorter
bouts do, indeed, have health bene䆀ts. In a 2013 study of more than 6,000 U.S. adults,
researchers compared people who met the physical activity guidelines (30 minutes of
moderate-intensity exercise daily) by exercising in bouts of 10 minutes or less to people who
exercised for longer periods. They found that both groups fared similarly in terms of key
markers of health, such as blood pressure, cholesterol levels and waist circumference. 

If you do more vigorous activity, like running, you can spend less total
time exercising each week. The HHS guidelines say that 75 minutes (1
hour and 15 minutes) of vigorous activity per week is equivalent to 150
minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week. A recent study also 
found that as little as 1 minute of all-out sprinting, along with 9 minutes
of light exercise, leads to similar improvements in health and 䆀tness as a 50-minute workout
at a moderate pace, when done three times a week for 12 weeks.

The HHS exercise guidelines also recommend that people do muscle strengthening activities
at least two days per week. Strength training is important for building muscle mass, which
increases the number of calories the body burns overall. In addition, if you don't do strength
training, the body will naturally lose muscle mass with age, and your body fat percentage
will increase, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Strength training also helps to strengthen bones, which reduces the risk of osteoporosis, the
Mayo Clinic says.

Strength training includes any exercises that challenge the muscles with resistance,
Laskowski said. For example, push-ups (either on the 㾀oor, or the easier version, done
against a wall), sit-ups, weight lifting or even intense gardening, like digging and shoveling,
work to strengthen muscles, according to HHS.

How do you get started?

Although the goal is to do 30 minutes of exercise in a single day, you might need to work up
to this amount if you've previously been sedentary.

A general rule is to "start out low, and progress slow," Laskowski said. This means starting
with a level of activity that's fairly light, and gradually increasing the duration and intensity
of your exercise.

Kelly Drew, an exercise physiologist with the American College of

Sports Medicine, said she usually recommends starting with 20
minutes of exercise a day, three days a week. From there, people can
increase the duration of their exercise so that they reach 30 minutes a 
day, three days a week. Once they can accomplish this, they can start
Exercising with a
adding more days of exercise, until they get to 䆀ve days a week, Drew friend makes your
said.  workout more
"If people go from zero to 100, they're not going to stick with the enjoyable, and may
mean you're more
program," Drew said. Rather, it's better to "start with small chunks [of likely to stick with it.
exercise], and add it in, to where it's part of your lifestyle," she said. Credit: Jogging
friends photo via
Shutterstock
How do you avoid injury?
Although it's important to pick exercise activities that you enjoy, the
experts also emphasized that if you're just starting out, low-impact types of exercise are
best. Good ones to try include walking, swimming, biking or using an elliptical machine.

Low-impact exercises are best for exercise beginners because they're easy on the joints and
muscles, Laskowski said. By contrast, high-impact exercises, which involve lots of jumping or
ballistic movements (think CrossFit or an exercise boot camp), put more stress on the
muscles and joints, and can cause injuries such as strains or sprains when you're just
starting out, Laskowski said.

People should also start with an honest evaluation of their current

䆀tness level and capabilities, Drew said. For example, a person who
used to do football drills in high school but hasn't done those drills in
 20 years could injure himself or become sore if he tried to do those
drills again right away, Drew said.

Following the "10 percent rule" also may help people avoid injuries. This means you increase
your activity by 10 percent per week. For example, if you jog for 100 minutes during one
week, you should aim for 110 minutes the next week, Drew said.

As you become 䆀tter, you should be able to do longer and more intense exercise. "The body
is amazing in its ability to adapt, and the more established you become in a workout
program, the more your body is going to be able to withstand the stresses that's put on it,"
Jonesco said.

How do you keep up a routine?

There are many barriers to exercising regularly. The biggest issue for most people is time,
Drew said. "No one has time to exercise — it's about 䆀nding the time, making the time," she
said.

As little as 10 minutes of exercise can be bene䆀cial, so people can look

at their schedules to see where they might 䆀t in 10 minutes of exercise,
Drew said. This can be as simple as parking a little farther from your
workplace, and walking 10 minutes to and from your car, Drew said.

Setting a speci䆀c exercise goal, such as running a 5K or improving your

time, can also help you stay motivated to keep up your routine, Drew
said.

It may also be a good idea to exercise with a friend, or to get a personal

trainer, which holds you accountable. "You're a lot less likely to miss [a
workout], because you have someone waiting for you," Drew said.
 And if you think you just hate to exercise, you might bene䆀t from a type
of talk therapy that helps people accept negative feelings and
uncomfortable sensations. Several recent studies suggest that this
therapy, called acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), can boost
people's physical activity levels and improve 䆀tness in those who
previously didn't exercise at all. [Hate Exercise? How Talk Therapy May
Help]

What if you have a chronic health condition?

People with chronic health conditions should speak with their doctor
before they begin an exercise program, to 䆀nd out how their condition
may limit their activity, according to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. You can work with your doctor to come up with a
routine that 䆀ts your abilities, the CDC says.

If you haven't previously been active, or if you have risk factors or

symptoms of heart disease, you may need an exercise stress test to
determine if your heart is healthy enough for physical activity, said Dr.
Andrew Freeman, a cardiologist and assistant professor at National
Jewish Health hospital in Denver. This is important because strenuous
exercise may precipitate a heart attack in people who are out of shape
and have risk factors for a heart condition, Freeman said.

An exercise stress test, which is often done on a treadmill, involves

gradually increasing your exercise e<ort while having your heart and
blood pressure monitored. The heart is monitored with electrodes on
the chest, which doctors use for an electrocardiogram (ECG), and blood
pressure is monitored with a blood pressure cu< on the arm.

This test can help check for coronary artery disease, a narrowing of the
arteries that supply blood to the heart. The test can also identify
abnormal heart rhythms during exercise, according to the National
 Institutes of Health.

Here are some of the If you've had a recent heart attack or heart surgery, a type of program
most common
known as cardiac rehabilitation can help you exercise safely, and
reasons people stop
exercising, and tips improve outcomes. This can involve a supervised exercise program
on how to overcome that lasts several months and gets harder as the weeks go on, Freeman
these barriers.
said.
Credit: Purch
Creative Ops
Another common chronic disease that may require people to take
precautions while exercising is diabetes. Exercise is good for the
management of diabetes, but it can cause your blood sugar to drop, Drew said. Therefore,
people with diabetes should not exercise on an empty stomach, and should check their
blood sugar level before and after exercise, to make sure it's not dropping too low, Drew
recommended.

Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook &

Google+. Original article on Live Science.

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
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Author Bio

Rachael Rettner, Senior Writer

Rachael has been with Live Science since 2010. She has a masters degree in journalism
from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program. She
also holds a Bachelor of Science in molecular biology and a Master of Science in biology
from the University of California, San Diego.

Rachael Rettner, Senior Writer on  

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