Exercise is essential to good health. It must be combined with a healthy diet (it will not compensate for a bad one). Brief bouts of peak, anaerobic exertion are essentially superior to expanding the health of the heart and lungs and in facilitating weight loss and/or lean tissue development. Excessive exercise is not necessary, or recommended, contrary to the beliefs of the many who run endless miles on the treadmill or spend hours lifting weights in the gym.
Our ancestors never wasted the time and energy on such needless pursuits. They got their periodic bouts of intense exercise by running after things to eat or by running away from things that were trying to eat them. That is how we evolved.
Long duration aerobic exercise (getting into that "fat burning zone" you often hear about) just tells your body that it will require more fat to perform such pointless tasks. It gets better at converting everything you eat to fat and using it more efficiently and sparingly. This makes it harder to use up. Not really what you were going for, is it? And if that is not enough, excessive exercise raises cortisol (our primary stress hormone) levels which raises our blood sugar and eats up our muscle and other tissues.
So...keep it short, no more than half an hour or so(not including warm-up and cool down) and keep that heart rate up. Below are some good movements to incorporate into your workouts.
The dive-bomber or Hindu push up. A great upper body shoulder and chest movement. Be sure to loosen up those shoulders first.
A classic, full body movement for cardio and power development. Can be performed at different speeds, in sets, mixed into circuits etc.
Build lower body strength (especially the often neglected glutes and hamstrings) and power. Study the proper form carefully and practice it with an empty bar to start. If possible, have someone watch you and give you feedback.
