• It's certainly not necessary to have special equipment for your exercise program, but at some point you might consider purchasing an exercise machine—especially if you live in areas of extreme weather conditions.

• A piece of home machinery allows you to alternate indoor and outdoor workouts depending on the weather-and your mood.

  

• You can also watch television, listen to music, or even read while you're getting fit.

• Stationary bikes (upright or recumbent), treadmills, and stair steppers are the three most popular machines.

• Doing different kinds of exercise will help keep your muscles toned and reduce the chance of injury.

• Make sure that you're drinking plenty of fluids. Force yourself if you have to. The more fit you are, the more your sweat glands are activated and the more you sweat.

• Every time you stretch, you're stimulating the muscles and tendons to lengthen. That's good!

• You might find that doing your strength work right after your 30 minute walk, (you'll be warmed up) is a convenient way to tuck it into your routine.

• On the other hand, you might prefer doing your strength work on a day that's separate from your 30 minute walk. This is especially true if your strength session starts to take up more time because you've added more exercises, or you decide to go to a gym for your strength work

• Either way is okay. Just remember not to strength train the same muscle group two days in a row.

Thought For the Week: