Most physical activity guidelines recommend a minimum 150 - 300 minutes of  moderate-intensity activity per week or 75 - 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity per week. Most people, who choose to follow the guidelines, choose to walk or jog to get their minutes in. What would you like to put in- your minimum or more? Move more sit less throughout your day- is a simple way to put it. And there is this added recommendation to do strengthening exercises involving all major muscle groups at least twice a week if you look into the detailed recommendations.

This is my attempt to make a case for focus on variety and challenge in a workout plan. For people who have not yet begun to invest time in their health, it is best to make a start using the best information.To those people who put in the time already, I recommend using the time as wisely as possible to derive the most benefit. This is coming from a 45 year old medical doctor, who till 40 years of age, thought that clean eating, walking/jogging and maintaining a healthy body weight (BMI less than 25, less than 23 for Asians) was enough till the annual blood tests pointed to an emerging Metabolic Syndrome.  It can creep up on you even if you believe you are living a healthy life, because "healthy" is not understood precisely enough.

Health is a very wide term and your doctor is always your best guide for any specific health problem. Here we are talking about the physical activity aimed at achieving physical fitness. The word physical fitness doesn't do justice to the positive changes that movement brings with it but it will have to do because we don't have an easily accessible way to look at better brain function apart from physical movement. Physical fitness includes five major components -

1. Cardiovascular fitness
2. Strength
3. Endurance
4. Flexibility 
5. and the right body composition. 

This is a beginners list. There are many other important physical skills to develop like power, speed, agility, coordination, balance and accuracy which the athletes prize. You would have noticed by now how intricately brain activity interfaces with the physical activity. So many of these improvements happen at the level of the brain. When you workout, you train your body and brain as a unit.

The path to improve physical fitness includes focus on balanced diet, balanced movement and adequate rest and recovery - no shortcuts. Stress management, good sleep, meditation, good social relationships and the spacing out of the workouts are all important aspects of rest and recovery. 

There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding nutrition.  Eating more whole foods closest to the form they come from nature (none to minimal processing) in the right quantities and proportions to fulfill all the nutrient requirements of the body is the only surefire way to start on a journey to a balanced diet. 

My focus in this article is balanced activity and variety in movement, so I will move on to how to make a comprehensive workout plan.

Creating a balanced workout plan around balanced movement involves paying attention to all the components of physical fitness, building on your strengths and covering the weaknesses. Remember, everyone is at different levels of fitness and there is no one-fits-all exercise program. You need to work with the body you have, with the limitations that come with that body, put in the work, challenge your limits gradually and trust the process.  Safety, self-awareness and consistency are key. Any injury sustained trying to hurry up the gains will only slow you down in the long run. Getting professional help in designing a workout program is a good option.

Walking, jogging and High Intensity Interval Training build cardiovascular fitness. Strength can be worked on by resistance training where the progressively increased resistance can be body weight, bands, gravity or weights (and they don't have to be heavy weights). Endurance is built by slowly increasing the time you do each activity- cardio and strength. For flexibility goals, you could combine specific flexibility drills with foam rolling or Yoga. Always make sure there is progress in all these areas and avoid stagnancy. Measurement and keeping a log will help you in maintaining an upward trajectory. It would be best to choose movements which use the full range of motion of all joints - walk, jog, run, dance, cycle, swim, lift weights, skate or play a sport, join a yoga class, add variety in movement. Choose things that appeal to your heart and are sustainable. All that activity, with the right diet, will shift the body composition (how much of musculature and fat stores you have) numbers towards the ideal. The more muscle you have to carry the weight you are, the better you will feel.

Not any of this activity has to be for vanity or body image and I am not judging if it is- whatever takes one on the path to health and fitness is good. That having been said, being accepting of the body you presently have, is crucial to giving direction to the efforts that need to be put in to be a better you. And though there is no specific focus on spending calories, it will happen on the side. The aim is to build a strong, physically fit body that you need to accomplish all the things that you want to do each day, whatever your age. So, go ahead, add variety and challenge in movement and activity for more energy, better mood, better social and family life and a better everyday.