Exercise For Health! (Consult Your Physician Before: Fill & Download for Free

I'll separately answer each of the following questions for you:Which days of the week should you work out?What should the ratio of cardio to weight training be?What type of cardio and weight training should you do?What is an example of a detailed workout program?My answers are based on your stated goals of losing fat and building muscle.1. Which days of the week should you work out?The short answer is that it really doesn't matter which days of the week you work out, so work out on whatever days fit in best with your schedule. You will see slightly better results if you space out your workouts evenly across the week, but not a significant enough improvement to justify totally rearranging your schedule and inconveniencing yourself.You mentioned that you are willing to spend four hours a week exercising. Four hours of exercise a week is more than enough to see great results. You can probably get away with three hours a week if you decide that three days at the gym works better for you than four.With that being said, let's look at a few examples of how you might want to split up your workouts. I'll show you examples of both three and four workouts a week.If you work out three days a week, the most obvious way to structure that would be to work out Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. That spaces out the workouts evenly, which will allow you to reap the most benefit from something called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), which just means that a hard workout on Monday will keep your metabolism elevated and burning higher than normal calories throughout Tuesday on your day off.But since you said you prefer to work out on weekends, another way to space the workouts would be to work out Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday. You'll still get a good benefit from EPOC with that schedule, as the most days off in a row are never more than two.Lastly, if for some reason the best possible workout schedule for you happens to be Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (i.e. three days on, four days off), that's fine too as long as you vary the workouts enough to ensure that you're not overtraining certain muscles. Heavy weightlifting workouts done three days on, four days off, wouldn't be a smart idea, but total-body fat-burning workouts are perfectly fine on that type of schedule.Looking at the same types of examples of a four day a week schedule, the best example is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.Since you said you prefer weekends, another way to space out a four day a week program is Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday.And lastly, if your other commitments happen to make it most convenient for you to work out Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, that's fine too as long as you have enough variety in your workouts and pay attention to how your body feels and take an extra day off here and there if you think your body needs it.2. What should the ratio of cardio to weight training be?Cardio exercise is actually a very inefficient way to burn calories and lose weight, so unless you love long boring cardio, I advise you to avoid it. You will see much better fat-burning in much less time if you focus on total-body circuit training workouts combined with high-intensity interval training (HIIT).Lets assume that, like most people, you'd rather not deal with the excruciating boredom of using a cardio machine for any extended period of time. That's perfect because you will see better results and have more fun if you avoid those pointless machines.If you're onboard with avoiding the boring cardio machines, then my advice about the ratio of strength training (done in a circuit training format for maximum use of your time) to HIIT is 80% strength training to 20% HIIT.If you happen to be someone who likes doing cardio, then by all means do it. Just keep in mind that when it comes to effectively burning fat, long slow cardio is significantly less effective than high intensity training (such as strength training circuits or HIIT). If you decide you want to do cardio, I wouldn't devote more than 1/3 of a gym session to it. If you have 60 minutes to spend at the gym, and you spend any more than 20 minutes on a cardio machine doing low intensity exercise, you probably won't end up seeing great results from the time you spend at the gym.3. What type of cardio and weight training should you do?First I'll discuss weight training, and then I'll tackle cardio (where I'll also talk about HIIT).The best weight training exercises are multi-joint, multi-muscle movements called compound exercises. Examples of compound exercises are squat, deadlift, pushup, pull-up, and military press. Those are the best exercises because they're the most functional (meaning the exercises are very similar to movements required in every day life), and they also provide maximum bang for your buck (meaning you can get more done in less time if you focus on compound exercises).The types of exercises you'll generally want to avoid are single-joint, single-muscle movements called isolation exercises. Examples of isolation exercises are leg extension, hamstring curl, chest fly, arm curls, arm extensions, and shoulder raises. Unless you're a meathead bodybuilder with way too much time on your hands to spend "attacking the muscles from all angles", just avoid those exercises completely.If you're going to be exercising at a gym or health club, then my advice is to avoid all of the strength training machines and just exercise with free weights. Free weights are more functional than machines, and provide more bang for your buck because they require you to engage significantly more stabilizing muscles during each exercise.Besides free weights, there are other great tools you can use for functional exercise, but I'll save that discussion for another time and just advise you to stick to the free weights (dumbbells and barbells) area at your gym.Regarding cardio, we're back to the question again of whether you even want to bother doing cardio. If you take my advice and don't bother doing cardio, and instead do HIIT, then you'll need to figure out an appropriate exercise for that. A few examples of great HIIT workouts are jumping rope, hill sprints, shuttle runs, burpees, etc. Just pick an exercise that you struggle to do at a high intensity for longer than 20 to 60 seconds, and then do that exercise for alternating intervals of maximum intensity followed by recovery periods. Also, one of the only machines I ever recommend can be used for effective HIIT workouts, and that machine is called the Concept2 rowing machine.If you decide to do long slow cardio, pick whatever boring cardio machine you want; it really doesn't matter. Although the elliptical machine is one of the most useless cardio machine all-time, so I advise that you avoid it.4. What is an example of a detailed workout program?Ok, let's say you're on board with my advice to avoid boring cardio and focus on total-body strength training circuits combined with HIIT. I'll give you an example workout of how that can be done.For the sake of simplicity and clarity, I'll include a basic workout with exercises that I think you'll be familiar with. This workout assumes that you have 60 minutes to spend exercising.An important detail of this workout is that each exercise will be time-based instead of rep-based, meaning that instead of doing pushups for 12 reps, you'll do them for 40 seconds.When I say do the exercises for 40 seconds, I don't mean do the exercise as fast as possible. You should keep a controlled tempo of 2-0-1 for each exercise, meaning two seconds on the lowering phase, no pause at the bottom, and one second on the lifting phase.Warm-Up (30 seconds per exercise, no rest between exercises, 2 rounds)Jumping jacksAlternating lunges w/ chest stretchSide step duck underFrankenstein walkPlank w/ knee-insStrength Training Circuit #1 (40 seconds per exercise, 20 seconds rest/transition between exercises, 2 rounds)DeadliftsPushupsWalking lungesBodyweight rowsOverhead press[You would do 2 additional circuits like the first, except with different exercises. Rest for a few minutes between strength training circuits.]HIIT (20 seconds work, 40 seconds recovery, 10 rounds)BurpeesWhen doing a HIIT workout, you need to decide two things: the exercise you'll be performing, and what's called the work/recovery ratio. I chose burpees just because most people know what a burpee exercise is, and I chose a 20 seconds to 40 seconds work/recovery ratio because that's appropriate for beginners. As your fitness improves, you could (and should) increase the work interval and decrease the recovery interval.That workout should take you roughly 60 minutes. You could stick with the same basic format for all of your workouts, and just switch out the exercises.Disclaimer: This is just an example for educational purposes. Since I've never met you, I have no idea if this workout program is appropriate for you, or if you're fit enough to even exercise, so be sure to consult your physician before beginning any program involving strenuous exercise.

Foremost, I'm not a doctor, so I can't give the correct answer to this question.I'm writing from my experience, since I have cervical Spondylosis for the past 12 yearsDo neck exercises daily and back strengthing exercises.Allot few minutes to meditation daily.Get your blood tested for vitamin D and calcium.Eat dates and apricots, which help to increase your blood calcium. Don't forget to drink milk and consume eggs daily.Try to sit for atleast 15 minutes in the sun light ( morning sun rays max before 10 am are good for health. Since it will fulfill Vitamin D needs of our body).Avoid lifting heavy weights.Avoid too many pillows, use only one thin pillow while sleeping.Don't stand or sit for long hours.Watch your posture (while sitting , standing and bending). Reduce using of electronic gadgets, since our spine posture suffers a lot.Get your blood tested for even Vitamin B12, thyroid too. Since Vitamin B deficiency causes muscle and joint pains.Do warm oil massage to your neck and complete spine, with Ashwagandha oil.Consult your General physician or Spine specialist ASAP.

Don't believe all the Internet bull*&it saying you go out there and free your mind by running.It may be good or bad, it depends on some factors such as age, particular health issues which you may or may not have (e.g., heart, ankles, knees). Despite what other answers may say, if you don't have already some running history in your legs (I assume you don't, given your question here), talk to your physician. You don't just go out there and "free your mind/body/whatever" without having talked first to your physician. I, for one, have had a proven history of good heart/leg muscles conditioning before starting doing a few 4-5 Km runs (e.g., did lots and lots of 150+ Km bike rides, and lots and lots of 60+ minutes high intensity spinning sessions). Though, after my third 5 Km run I started to perceive ankle damage, and the ankles started bulging. So I quit running, as I wanted to keep doing cycling and spinning, these activities not having any kind of ankle impact, and overall being much funnier.Anyway, you still need to consult your physician before doing any serious running/cycling/etc. Don't google it. Go see your physician. If you are told NOT to run over more than 1-2 Km at a time, then don't.