by Anthony D'Aconti

Created on: March 09, 2007   Last Updated: May 04, 2007

The key to making the most of a fitness workout is learning the basics and knowing what you want to achieve. You need to decide if you're looking to lose weight, gain stamina, build muscle mass, increase strength, tone-up...etc

If you are just looking to lose weight do 20-60 minutes of cadiovascular activity three to four times a week. This could be walking, jogging, running, bicycling, rowing...anything that will keep your heart rate up.

If you are looking to build stamina try running for ten minutes per day for a week and then add a minute or two the next week.

Body building gets a little trickier. First of all, do you want to build stength, mass, definition? And how do you do each one? It's all about weight and repetitions. The heavier you lift and the less reps you do, the stronger and bulkier you will get. The lighter you lift and the more reps you do, you will have more tone and definition.

A repetition is when you move your arm from point A to point B and return to point A. A combination of repetitions is called a set. As a general formula for body building:
4-6 reps/set: for strength/mass
7-11 reps/set: for general build
12+ reps/set: tone/definition

Be sure to work out each muscle group. There are six major muscle groups.

Large Muscles: Chest, back, and legs

Small muscles: Bicep, tricep and shoulders

You want to target two muscle groups per work out, combining one large and one small group. Try not to mix back with biceps or chest with triceps. Chest workouts also work your triceps so if you mix chest and triceps you will overtrain your triceps. As a rule, combine:

Chest/Bicep
Back/Tricep
Legs/Shoulders

You should do about 10-15 sets for large muscle groups and 6-10 sets for small muscle groups.

Keep in mind that you build muscle while you rest so work out three days on and take a day off.

You can work out your abdominals no more than three times a week. A typical ab exercise would be:

Basic crunch: 50 reps
Leg Lift: 50 reps
Obliques: 50 reps each side

Between the cardio, bodybuilding and ab exercise you will have hit all the things that make up a fitness workout.

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