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Here’s the bottom line: exercise must be fun, or else you won’t stick with it. One way to keep exercise fun is to exercise as safely and effectively as possible. Few things will destroy your enthusiasm as quickly as a nagging injury. Exercise right and you’re much more likely to stick with it – and see results that last.

Remember to warm up and cool down whenever you exercise. Warming up is important to bring your body from its normal level of activity to a state of exercise readiness by increasing blood flow to muscles, raising muscle temperatures (to increase muscle elasticity and to protect joints) and mentally prepare, or "psych yourself up."

Warm up by performing some cardiovascular activity, such as riding an exercise bike, using a stair climber, treadmill or crosstrainer for at least five minutes. Warm-ups should be done at a very low intensity in order to prepare your body for exercise.

Conversely, cool down after exercise by decreasing your activity level, such as decreasing the resistance level on an exercise machine, to help your cardiovascular system gradually return to its normal level. Follow with stretching for at least 10 minutes using static movements – do not bounce.

When you exercise, start at an appropriate level and exercise at the proper intensity by staying within your target heart rate zone (see related article).

To determine your appropriate aerobic exercise routine, think FIT – an acronym for Frequency, Intensity and Time – the key components of a successful personal exercise plan :

Frequency: Frequency refers to how many times you work out each week. If your objective is simply to improve your cardiorespiratory fitness, you should exercise at least three times a week with no more than two days between workouts. If your main goal is to burn fat, you should exercise at least four times a week and for longer periods of time at a lower intensity.

Keep in mind that rest is important. Even after you have settled into a consistent aerobic workout routine, you should not work out more than five times a week. Your body needs time to recover after exercise. In fact, it is between workouts that our bodies adapt to the new training routine. Increasing frequency yields little additional cardiorespiratory improvement and increases the risk of muscle strain and injury. Try to perform aerobic workouts every other day so you’ll have a day’s rest between workouts.

Intensity: Intensity refers to how hard you work your heart and how hard you feel that you are working (rate of perceived exertion, or R.P.E). Each of us has a theoretical maximum heart rate, which sounds complicated but is really easily estimated: 220 minus your age. If you’re healthy, you should exercise at 60 % to 85 % of your maximum heart rate (see chart).

Time: Time refers to the number of minutes you spend exercising in each workout session. To maximize the benefits of your workout program, it is important that you exercise for at least 20 minutes per session to achieve cardiovascular goals and more than 20 minutes for body fat goals.

Time and intensity work very closely together and are related to your current fitness level. If your fitness level is low, your intensity should be low. If you set your intensity too high, you won’t be able to exercise as long.