StressLess Body Therapy: Basic Exercise Program

The following are my exercise recommendations for improved health, fitness and stress reduction. If you wish to lose weight you will need to increase the cardio frequency to 5-7 days a week.

CARDIOVASCULAR EXERCISE RECOMMENDATIONS:

Frequency: 3 or more times a week

Length of Time: 30-60 minutes

Difficulty: Medium to medium high (should be able to talk some while exercising)

Type of Exercise: Walk, run, bicycle, elliptical or cross trainer, rowing, stair climber, dance, aerobics class, step class, spinning class, cardio kickboxing, swimming

RESISTANCE TRAINING RECOMMENDATIONS:

Frequency: 2-3 times a week

Length of Time: 30-60 minutes

Difficulty: Start with light resistance such as 2-5 pound weights and complete 15-20 repetitions of each exercise. Once the resistance seems to become easier increase the weight. It is not important to be able to lift a lot of weight, it is important only to feel resistance (unless you want to increase your muscle size and that is not what we are aiming for here).

Type of Exercise: My exercise recommendation is to include all the major muscle groups in the following order: Legs, Buttocks, Back, Chest, Shoulders, Arms, Stomach. You can chose 2-3 exercises for each muscle group. There are many sources for resistance training exercises, to get started I recommend the book Getting in Shape: 32 Workout Programs for Lifelong Fitness by Bob and Jean Anderson, or if you prefer look for a beginners DVD for weight training at home.

STRETCHING RECOMMENDATIONS:

Frequency: Daily, at the end of your exercise routine

Length of Time: 10-20 minutes

Difficulty: Easy to Medium

Type of Exercise: Stretching is often overlooked or thought of as a warm up but it is an important part of maintaining a stress and pain free body.

My exercise recommendation is to stretch at the end of your routine. This will improve your flexibility and you will be less likely to cause an injury from over stretching because your muscles will be all warmed up. Stretching cold muscles can cause injury, stretching at the beginning of your exercise routine is only meant to determine your range of motion, it is not intended to increase your flexibility.

Stretches should be performed for all the muscle groups. I recommend the book Stretching: 20th Anniversary (Stretching) by Bob and Jean Anderson or a beginners stretching DVD.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:

When you first start following my exercise recommendations, remember to start slowly. Set a goal of 15 minutes of exercise a day. Maybe the first 2 weeks you decide you will try to ride your stationary bike for 15 minutes at least 3 mornings a week. Then when you are accomplishing this, you can decide to add 5 minutes of stretching after each 15 minute session. Then after a month or two, you can add 15 minutes of resistance training 2 days a week followed by 5 minutes of stretching. So now after 3 months you are exercising 20 minutes 5 days a week. Keep it up, just get used to that. Then when you have created this new habit of exercising and you are feeling the stress relieving and energizing benefits of exercise, you can increase the time - 5 minutes more of cardio, 5 minutes more of resistance training, and 5 minutes more of stretching. Now you are exercising 30 minutes, 5 days a week!

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