• Home
  • Nutrition advice
  • Fitness advice
  • Beauty advice
  • Recipes
  • About the Experts
English | Español

Discover Good
  • Nutrition
  • Fitness
  • Beauty

Fast-Track Your Fitness Results with a Balanced Exercise Plan


 Posted by Samantha Clayton, AFAA, ISSA – Vice President, Worldwide Sports Performance and Fitness  0 Comment

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars
Loading ... Loading ...

Stretch for body confidence.

Get better and faster results by customizing your workouts – discover what’s missing from your current routine.

Taking a balanced approach, in my opinion, is the best approach to living a healthy, active lifestyle. Training in a balanced and structured way will help you to more accurately progress your workouts, may help you to avoid unnecessary injuries, and following a balanced routine may enhance your overall training results, helping you reach your goals faster.

We all have our individual likes and dislikes when it comes to exercising, so customizing your routine based on what you love is the best way to ensure you stay motivated and dedicated towards achieving your goal.

Here are four elements of exercise that every good plan should include.

Stretching: Stretching on a regular basis can help you gain body confidence and make you become more conscious of your posture. Stretching is also great for improving joint stability, muscular flexibility and alleviating muscular tension.

Dynamic warm-up stretches and static post-exercise stretching can take as little as 10 minutes of your time, yet can make a dramatic difference in how you feel. Ensure that every workout starts with a warm-up and ends with a cool-down.

Cardio: Engaging in cardiovascular activity is good for your heart and great for burning excess calories. Your heart is a muscle, and pushing it to work hard a few days each week may help improve your cardiac output. If you engage in cardiovascular activity on a regular basis, you may lower your overall resting heart rate, which is good for your long-term health. There are so many activities you can choose from; walking, running, cycling, dancing and swimming are all very popular, but any exercise that gets your heart rate up will work.

Performing moderately intense cardio based activities for at least 150 minutes per week or 75 minutes per week of vigorous activity – or a combination of the two – is a good amount to aim for to reap the health benefits associated with exercising.

Strength: When you add resistance based training to your routine, you will start to notice changes in how you look and feel. You may loose excess body fat and gain lean muscle mass, which is not only great for your appearance, but it also helps your body become more efficient at burning calories. A body with a high percentage of lean muscle mass requires more calories just to sustain itself than a person of the same weight who has a higher percentage of body fat.

You can stimulate muscle tissue to grow by exercising, using your body weight as resistance or by lifting weights on a regular basis. Performing resistance based activities three to four times per week, combined with consuming a protein-rich diet can help you achieve great results.

Endurance: Engaging in regular, prolonged physical activity can improve your muscular strength and boost your overall endurance level. When you exercise, your body must deliver oxygen and nutrients to your tissues in order to help your cardiovascular system work more efficiently.

When your heart and lungs work more efficiently, you have more energy to go about your daily tasks. You can improve cardiovascular endurance by extending the duration of your workouts, and muscular endurance can be achieved by increasing your weight and reps at the gym.

Spend at least one session per week focusing on your endurance based fitness level.

We all have different goals for our bodies, so taking a personalized approach to your plan is the best way to ensure that you are striving toward becoming your best self. You get to decide how much of each mode of training you incorporate into your week to feel at your best. Keep an exercise journal as you experiment with your plan, so that when you do find the perfect exercise combination for your body, you will have it written down for future reference.

« Train Your Body, Train Your Mind
Tabata Training: Elevate Your Fitness Level »

    Share This


Samantha Clayton, AFAA, ISSA – Vice President, Worldwide Sports Performance and Fitness
Samantha Clayton is responsible for all activities relating to exercise and fitness education for Independent Herbalife Members and employees. Through in-person training sessions, educational tools and materials, and her blog (www.discovergoodfitness.com), she ensures that the important role of exercise as part of a healthy, active life is understood by all. She also helps create, organize and promote employee fitness programs and activities as an integral part of the company’s corporate wellness program. A native of Liverpool, England, Samantha initially worked as a consultant for Herbalife for two years and led the Herbalife24-Fit program, the company’s first comprehensive fitness training program and DVD series. Before joining the corporate ranks, Samantha was a professional athlete. She represented Great Britain in the 2000 Sydney Olympics in both the 200m and the 4x100m relay events. Prior to the Olympics, she won two medals in the Olympic AAA trials – a silver medal for the 200m and a bronze for the 100m – as well as a silver medal in the 4x100m relay during the European Junior Championships in 1997. Her personal records include 11.40 seconds in the 100m and 23.02 seconds in the 200m. Samantha is a personal trainer and group exercise coach through the American Fitness and Aerobics Association (AFAA) and International Sport Science Association (ISSA).


Related Posts


Getting Ripped: Nutrition and Exercise Tips

Four Facts on Why Exercising is Important to Your Health

Hit A Fitness Plateau? 4 Tips to Recharge Your Routine


  • Search

  • Sign Up for Updates

  • Meal Plans

    • 1200 calorie diet
      Try This 3-Day 1200 Calorie Diet Plan
    • Streamline Your Diet With This Healthy 1500 Calorie Plan
    • 2200 calorie diet
      Sample Menus for a 2200 Calorie Diet Plan
    • personalized diet
      How to Create a Personalized Diet Plan
    • 1800 calorie diet
      Healthy 1800 Calorie Diet Plan
  • Fitness advice

    • Getting Ripped: Nutrition and Exercise Tips
    • Tips to Make Home Fitness Equipment Fit Your Budget
    • running clubHow to Start Your Own Running Club
    • build strength3 Classic Exercises to Help Build Strength
    • circuit trainingQuick Blast Body Weight Circuit Training
  • Beauty advice

    • hair color5 Proven Tips to Prevent Hair Color Fade
    • pamperHome Spa: How to Pamper Yourself
    • handsGrab On to These Hand Tips
    • discard old cosmeticsBalance Your Beauty and Discard Old Cosmetics
    • Dry Skin Vs. Dehydrated Skin: What’s the Difference?
  • Nutrition advice

    • supertasterAre You a Supertaster?
    • Chefs' diet secrets
    • healthy behaviorHealthy Behavior: Making Healthy Diet Changes that Last
    • diet techniquePopular Dieting Tools and Techniques
    • Heart healthHeart health: How to fine tune your diet in 5 easy steps



Privacy Policy | CCPA Suplemmental Notice

Copyright © 2019 Herbalife International of America, Inc.