Weekly Workouts: A One-Hour Full Body Session

06/15/2016 / By usafeaturesmedia

(MensFitnessFocus.com) As much as you want to exercise, finding the available time to do so isn’t always that easy. Still, the chances are you have at least one day in the week to enjoy all to yourself.

This day offers the best opportunity to get in some full body training, using a one-hour program designed to help create a healthy, toned physique.

Ideally, you would prefer to train 3 days out of the week or more, but this isn’t always viable when other aspects of life get in the way. If this is the case, then the following one-hour program is ideal for you.

Like all effective exercise regimes, start by warming up your body with a series of stretches. This will warm the body up and help it stay resistant to damage. After the warm-up, there will be a series of strength training and cardio exercises. The overall workout will involve:

5 minutes of static stretching
30 minutes of strength training
25 minutes of cardio exercises

In total, this will just take one hour, but it offers a fully rounded series of exercises. Here’s a closer look at the advantages, gains and uses of these different parts.

Static Stretching

Before you start training, it’s important to stretch. This aids in improving the flexibility of your body, as well as the range of motion (ROM) of the various joints.

This, in turn, enables more efficient exercises without the risk of injury. Static stretching is also vital for people who don’t train frequently, as their joints are often tighter as a result.

How Static Stretching Works

If you break down the meaning of the term, static stretching refers to performing other movements after a given muscle has been extended or stretched.

In other words, you should be stretching each joint, as well as the respective muscles, as far as their ROM allows, holding it for a minimum of 30 seconds.

When doing this, you should remember to stretch carefully and slowly, as this will prevent the joints from straining.

Common and useful examples of static stretching include:

Single-arm cross stretches
Overhead shoulder and triceps stretches
Single-leg standing quad stretches
Static trunk stretch
Straight leg hangs
Behind the back chest stretches
Side neck stretches

Strength Training

Strength training offers many benefits. In addition to increasing your muscle mass, it can also be used to make muscles stronger, with longer endurance levels.

This results in muscles that can be used for larger periods of time. It can help improve the strength of your bones, while simultaneously reducing the rate of bone density.

These are just some of the benefits you can achieve with strength training and, of course, your body will also look much better,

How Strength Training Works

Strength training involves a high focus on your ROM and improving performance. However, it should also be practiced moderately, with about 4-5 sets of any one exercise, with 8-10 repetitions for each respective set.

While you might not be able to complete each set with ease, you should strive not to fail or stop on any set other than the last one. It’s this push that allows strength training to benefit you.

Popular and useful strength exercises include:

Cardiovascular Training

When something involves “cardio”, it is related to the heart. Cardiovascular training, then, represents an area of exercise designed to improve your heart, as well as the circulatory system that works alongside it.

This training will improve your heart’s condition, which can often offer resistance against various conditions, such as heart disease. It can also improve your metabolism, allowing for greater and more efficient fat loss.

Cardio exercises are also some of the easiest you can undertake, since they require no additional equipment to complete.

How Cardio Training Works

Cardiovascular training, known as cardio for short, is a form of aerobic training that gets the most benefits from exercise periods that exceed 10 minutes. This is because exercising over longer periods forces muscle fibers to use more oxygen.

Because of their simplicity, cardio exercises can be achieved either in the gym, or at home. They can even be done outside. Some people assume a treadmill or other cardio devices are required for effective cardio workout routines, but this is not the case.

If you need simple cardio exercises to complete in your own home, without incorporating running or sprinting, you should consider these:

Stationary High Knees
Shadow Kickboxing
Jumping Jacks
Burpees
Climbers
Steam Engines

The Benefits Of Change

Changing and improving your physique doesn’t just make you feel better, it’s a great way to improve your health and increase the possibility of a long life.

This workout program offers a great way to achieving this, even if you can only fit on one hour a week. This exercise program has been designed to separate the various training variations from one another.

What exercises are you most looking forward to adding into your regime? Share your views with us, so others can benefit from your exercise choices.

Author Bio

Demmy James is a fitness buff, strength and conditioning specialist and content contributor with Muscle & Strength. He is constantly looking to inspire and motivate others towards achieving their own health and fitness goals through his writings.