For those of you who don’t know where to start with creating an exercise program for your fitness goals, it may be tough choosing which activities to focus on. You could do dozens of activities in various settings – there is so much to choose from! Here is UTHFA’s guide for creating the most suited exercise regime for yourself.

1. Choose what you enjoy

Think about what sports and exercises you would enjoy the most. The more you enjoy your activity, the more likely you are to stick with it for the long-term. It may be helpful to come up with a list of what you like and dislike about each type of activity to get a better sense of how much you want to focus on each.

For example, someone once told me that they love to swim because they can’t feel themselves sweat while in the water. That same person has never been able to stick to a long-term exercise regime that involved running, biking, or playing sports because of this preference.

2. Use a guide for understanding impact

Harvard University published a guide for “Calories burned in 30 minutes for people of three different weights.” It is a table listing the calories burned by doing various activities for 30 minutes.

Use this as a guideline to understand the relative impact of each activity you choose to incorporate into your routine and adjust your activities according to your calorie-burning and fitness goals.

3. Trial and Error

Remember, just because you came up with an exercise regime that sounds perfect to you, it doesn’t mean that you can’t change it later. If you pick an activity and then realize you hate it, just try something else. Furthermore, you may get bored doing the same regime for a long time – this may also mean that it is time to adjust certain parts of your exercise program.

To get you started, explore our top home exercise programs here.

Your workouts are what you want them to be, so make them your own!