Exercise is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. Establishing a fitness and workout routine and sticking to it is the first step toward adopting this type of lifestyle and making it work for you.

When you begin your fitness routine, you will want to start light and work your way up. It should include three phases: a warm-up, cardiovascular workout and a cool-down. The warm up will consist of stretching and light exercises. This phase can last for 15 minutes or more, depending on the number of exercises you wish to include. Make sure you are completely warmed up and have stretched your muscles well before continuing to the next phase.

The second phase is cardiovascular. This can consist of working out on a treadmill, exercise bicycle or simple doing aerobic exercises. If you want to maintain your weight and get your requisite cardiovascular workout for the day 30 minutes will suffice for this phase. If you are trying to burn calories you will need to up this to 45 minutes.

The third phase is cool-down. This is where you will do lighter exercises. These may include leg lifts, stretches and working with weights. This phase should last for up to 15 minutes. Again, it is absolutely necessary to stretch your muscles very thoroughly so you will not do any damage to them. It is just as crucial to do this after your main fitness work out during the cool-down phase as it is to do it before during warm-up.

Fitness can take place anywhere. Some people choose to join a gym. This is a great choice for many people because gyms give them somewhere dedicated to go and can serve as a motivational tool. They also contain different types of exercise equipment which allows users to vary the routine. For example, you might use an exercise bicycle and treadmill on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and swim on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Here you have options and this can make sticking to your routine much easier.

If you are unable to join a gym or simply do not wish to go this route, you can exercise from the comfort of your own home. You may choose to put together a fitness routine of your own or work from an exercise CD or DVD. Either way, you will still be able to get in a completely healthy workout where ever you are with no difficulty.