HOW much exercise do we need to do?

Well for our general health and well being we should all be physically active everyday, with at least 30 minutes of continuous activity — a brisk walk to work, cycling, even housework or gardening.

This is enough to help with our general health, keeping our muscles and bones healthy, improving our circulation etc.

However, to lose weight this needs to be increased.

We need to add three to five moderate to high intensity exercise sessions each week if we want to lose weight.

Whatever your age or level, aim to work to a high intensity, a level, which feels tough for you (which will be different from the next person).

If you cycle or run at a moderate intensity for 20 minutes, try adding 30 second sprints in, with a couple of minutes to recover in between.

The harder you work, the more calories you will burn, if you work at a higher intensity you will burn more calories afterwards too.

If this is easy, increase the sprint duration or speed until it is a high intensity for you.

This goes for weight training too, if you are happily lifting 12 or more reps without much fatigue then increase the resistance.

The last rep should feel pretty tough!

Remember, any change to your routine will shock your body into making changes.

If you aim to get both high intensity workouts for around 20 to 30 minutes and moderate intensity workouts for around 40 to 60 minutes each week, with three to five workouts overall then you won't go far wrong.

Try to vary the exercise you do to work different muscles.

This will not only keep it fresh, but will help your body change shape faster.

I always advise you incorporate core exercise or Pilates into exercise regimes too, as strengthening your core and postural muscle will help prevent injury and will also improve your exercise performance.

I will talk more on core muscles in next weeks article.