Nobody is excused from this exercise program unless your doctor says so. Young. Old. Overweight. Thin. Doesn’t matter. You don’t have to go to a gym. You need only 30 minutes. You can do the cardio and weight training at home. Cardio exercise is commonly referred to as “aerobic” which means “with air”. Exercise in creases the heart rate, and when your heart rate increase, so does your breathing rate. This is to pull in more air containing oxygen to compensate for the increased oxygen you’re using in the muscles. Blood flows faster to deliver oxygen and other nutrients to muscles and to remove waste products. The types of cardio exercise, also called modes, are whatever uses large muscle groups in rhythmic patterns, such as:

• Walking, jogging, or running outdoors or on treadmills.
• Cycling outdoors or on cycle ergometers.
• Swimming or pool-walking.
• Cross-country skiing or Nordic-Tracking
• Stair climbing using stairs or stair-climbing machines
• And others too numerous to list.

Find something you like (or dislike the least) and go for it. You can use a combination of various exercises on different days or even withing each workout. It’s up to you, but you must pick something.

THE FOUNDATION 5-20-5 CARDIO WORKOUT:30 minutes is plenty to burn fat as long as you don’t over eat. Exercise as hard as you can to use as much total energy as possible, then after you body uses up all the readily available carbs, it will have to burn fat.

THE FOUNDATION WEIGHT TRAINING WORKOUT:If you have never lifted or weight-trained ever or it has been a while, this is where to start. You can use elastic bands or surgical tubing as the resistance. They are inexpensive and you can take them with you anywhere. You can use light dumbbells if you prefer. No expensive equipments needed. No more than 30 minutes a day for three days per week. Weight-train every other days so there is a day of rest in between when you can do the cardio exercise the other 3 days, and you have 1 day off!

STRETCHING is usually done for two reasons: warm-up and improved range of motion. Both cardio programs have you do at least five minutes of warm-up to increase the flow of blood into the muscles. That’s a sufficient warm-up. However, the primary purpose of stretching is to maintain the range of motion of a joint. If you weight train as outlined in the Foundation and Optimal Programs and lift through the entire range of motion of each movement, you will be actively stretching each joint.

Note: The Foundation Exercise Program and the Foundation Meal Plan work synergistically: Carbohydrates power workouts, fat powers recovery, and protein builds muscle. You need all three in the proper ratio to maximize your fitness.