[_v9dc]

There is no magic and you don't need any fancy equipment or clothing.

If you want to improve your cardiovascular health, do some cardio 3-7 times per week for at least 30 minutes.

If you have the will/want/time, add in some weight lifting 3-5 times a week.

Lastly, controlling your diet will make arguably the biggest difference in your body composition. If you want to lose weight you need to eat less calories than you burn period, unless you have medical conditions. If you have trouble losing weight you need to count your calories and figure out your TDEE using a calculator(google will pull up a few).

So personally I go to the gym directly after work(bring everything you need in the morning). This works the best for me because it doesn't allow me to get home and be lazy.

[WaltPurvis]

Agreed with all that, but I'd add that it's not truly necessary to do cardio "for at least 30 minutes." High intensity interval training (you can google for HIIT if you're interested) is proven to be just as effective, if not more, than longer steadier cardio workouts.

Personally I alternate between both.

[tom_b]

Interesting research results contradict HIIT as a pure general guideline for everyone (I think alternating between both is an excellent approach though).

"Given that ∼20% of subjects fail to improve aerobic capacity with intense endurance training, while ∼30% do not enhance their insulin sensitivity (12), it is clear that we must develop genotype-tailored lifestyle interventions."[1]

[1] Using molecular classification to predict gains in maximal aerobic capacity following endurance exercise training in humans

James A. Timmons, Steen Knudsen, Tuomo Rankinen, Lauren G. Koch, Mark Sarzynski, Thomas Jensen, Pernille Keller, Camilla Scheele, Niels B. J. Vollaard, Søren Nielsen, Thorbjörn Åkerström, Ormond A. MacDougald, Eva Jansson, Paul L. Greenhaff, Mark A. Tarnopolsky, Luc J. C. van Loon, Bente K. Pedersen, Carl Johan Sundberg, Claes Wahlestedt, Steven L. Britton, Claude Bouchard Journal of Applied Physiology Published 1 June 2010 Vol. 108 no. 6, 1487-1496 DOI: 10.1152/japplphysiol.01295.2009

[britknight]

I agree with most of what you've said, but I would recommend switching the priority to lifting rather than cardio. Of course, cardio is important for heart heath and overall respiratory fitness, but in terms of "getting in shape" it's hard to beat a good lifting regimen.

I have a couple of reasons for this: 1) If your goal is to look good, then lifting will most definitely help with that. Basically, you'll gain more definition and muscle tone where it counts and lose a lot of the superfluous fat. 2) You'll also feel better. It's a pretty great feeling to pick up something that you know should be heavy and find that you can manage it with one hand. 3) The above talks about diet, specifically burning more calories on a daily basis than you consume. Lifting will help with this in two ways. Firstly, the act of lifting itself is extremely calorie-intensive: you burn pretty much the same (or greater) number of calories lifting than you do running (assuming fairly standard workouts, of course). Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, not only does it take a lot of energy to build new muscle during your recovery, muscle tissue takes more energy to keep warm than an equal amount of fat. What that means is that if you replace some of your body fat with muscle through a lifting routine, you will increase your basal metabolic rate (the amount of energy you burn at rest), which will be a godsend for any weight-loss plans you may have.

That being said, don't disregard cardio: work it in on recovery days.

Speaking of recovery days, if your muscles feel good enough to lift more than four days a week, you'll get better results increasing your workloads (higher weight) and keeping to 2-4 days a week. If you do chose to do 4 days a week, a great pattern is:

Day 1: Upper Body (High Weight + Low Reps) Day 2: Lower Body (Low Weight + High Reps) Day 3: Rest (Cardio if you feel up to it) Day 4: Lower Body (High Weight + Low Reps) Day 5: Upper Body (Low Weight + High Reps) Day 6: Rest Day 7: Rest

Low reps means 5-6, high means 10-15. Use whatever weight allows you to do that many reps twice (a.k.a. two sets of x reps). Don't do both sets together; do one set of one exercise, then one of some complementary exercise, then do the last set of the first and the last set of the second.

Whatever route you choose: good luck :)

P.S. A note on soreness: you should be tired after your workouts, and a little soreness the next day is fine. What's not fine is being near-unable to use your muscles after a workout. Too much soreness actually impedes the recovery process, so take it easy ;)