Before starting any routine, be sure to spend at least 10 minutes warming up, including good stretching exercises. Warm, loose muscles are much less likely to tear themselves or attached tendons. Also, you'll want to get the circulatory system activated and muscle temperature increased for good blood flow.

How much weight to use, how many reps to perform and other variables are determined by your overall goals. Do you want to build muscle mass or just tone? For more mass, use more weight. For better tone, use less weight and do more reps. Do you want to increase flexibility and overall fitness or prepare for specific events?

In any case, these traditional exercises will help you get started down that road. Some can be performed without equipment, others require only a very simple set of free weights or resistance equipment. Resistance equipment includes rubber straps with handles, springs and others that work primarily by offering resistance to tension. Weights work primarily by providing compression and/or tension due to gravity.

Warning: Never exercise 'through the pain'. Mild discomfort – especially after a prolonged period of inactivity – is normal. But intense pain is a sign of trouble. Consult your physician.

Push-Ups

Even with all the contemporary sports science around, traditional push-ups remain an excellent upper body exercise. Start on your stomach, back straight, feet together, hands under the shoulders. Press against the floor, keeping your back and legs straight, then lower yourself back to the floor. For a little extra effort push-up, slow the action down and both raise and lower more slowly.

Try to do 20, then build up to 40, then to 80 push-ups.

More Chest Work

Start with 10 lb (4.5 kg) hand-held dumbbells. Flat on your back on a comfortable surface, such as a carpet or mat, hold the weights in each hand, palms up, arms extended perpendicular from the body. Lift slowly and bring the hands together.

To vary the action, and get the biceps a good workout, too, try bending at the elbow when the arms are raised about 20 degrees, then straighten and continue.

Lats

Stand up straight, arms at your side, grasping the dumbbells. Maintain good balance and breathe normally. At the maximum point of inhalation, thrust the arms away from the body, palms inward. Exhale as you raise your arms to shoulder height, then lower your hands slowly back to the starting position.

To vary the exercise, and get the biceps and triceps involved, rotate the weights and curl your arms up at the top of the swing. Straighten the arm, then lower as described above.

Do 10 reps.

(Note: The 'lats' or latissiumus dorsi' are the large, side muscles that make men triangle-shaped.)

Biceps and Triceps

Move the weights in front of the body, with your arms hanging above the front of your thighs. Without swinging or pushing off the thighs, lift the weights toward your chest. Alternate using one arm, then the other.

Do 10 reps for each arm. If you experience lower back pain during the exercise, stop immediately. Put off the exercise until another day, or see your physician.

Exercises for the lats or biceps can be done with free weights or using a long, elastic resistance strap. Hook one end with the foot and grab the other with your hand. Proceed as described above.

Pull-ups/Chin-ups

If you have access to a sturdy bar, either in the gym or at a playground, or at home in a doorway, you can perform chin-ups and pull-ups. Chins ups are done with the fingers toward you, pull-ups with the fingers facing away, while your hands grasp the bar above your head.

This low-tech exercise remains one of the best ways to build biceps, triceps, lats and pectorals all at once.

No matter what routine you choose, don't overdo it. Build up your strength gradually. One of the most common reasons people don't continue workouts is pain produced from incorrect technique or excessive effort exerted too early in the process.

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Your overall goal is to attain good range of motion, while gradually extending that range to a degree appropriate to your fitness level and body type. There are several different ways to accomplish that goal, and you should use at least a few of them before every workout.

Warm-ups are fundamental. Cold muscles are much more likely to tear and lead to stretched or torn cartilage and other harmful results. Warm-ups and stretches help produce the fluid that lubricates the joints, and it helps the muscles become more elastic. Those both lead to safer, higher performance workouts.

Ten to fifteen minutes is the minimum for most people. This can be done by low-impact jogging in place, simple stretches and other techniques.

Static stretching, for example, is the old-fashioned stretch and hold for 30 seconds. This should be done with the arms, trunk, legs and neck. Dynamic stretching and ballistic stretching involve more active, bouncing-style or weight-assisted stretching, sometimes with extra force applied. Both types are helpful.

Some dynamic stretches involve holding the arms out to the side, then swinging them back and forth across front of the body, repeating for 30 seconds. Another technique involves using a short bar across the neck, lying on the shoulders. Place your hands on the bar, then bend slowly left, then right, moving the head toward the outer edge of the foot.

Abdominal muscles can be prepared by lying backwards on a large rubber ball. Push back slowly and raise the arms above your head. Repeat 10 times. Loosen your hamstrings by lying on your back, and raising one outstretched leg using a large towel wrapped around the foot. Grab the ends and pull up slowly. Switch legs, then repeat for 10 reps.

A full back stretch is accomplished by lying on your back and bringing both knees to the chest, hands clasped behind the knees. Roll forward until your feet hit the floor, then roll back until the head touches. Do 10 rolls.

Groin stretches can be done safely by using a large rubber ball. Place one knee on the ball and slowly rotate the ball a few inches away from your body. Move the ball back toward your body, then switch legs. Do 10 movements.

Both the legs and back muscles can get a good warm-up stretch by doing toe taps. Stand up straight, feet apart about shoulder width. Lean forward, touching the big toe on one foot with the opposite hand – left hand to right foot, and vice-versa. Those with lower back problems should consult a trainer or physician before attempting these.

For maximum flexibility, stretching routines should be carried out at least a few times per week. This will help maximize the range of motion and decrease the potential for injury.

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While some women can and do achieve the upper body strength of some (even very fit) men, the overwhelming majority of males have a natural advantage in this area. Male aesthetic values, the source of which isn't clear, reinforce this and so they tend to work on upper body more than some other areas, relative to women's efforts.

Women, in part out of a desire to be seen as attractive, will focus exercises more on buttocks and legs. But here they also have a slight natural advantage for some exercises. A woman's pelvis tilts at a different angle than a man's. This effects the style and efficiency of squats, for example. Women will benefit by tilting the feet outward with legs further apart, while not needing to squat so low.

Overall, (most) women have less muscle mass than men (though they have additional layers in the stomach) and a higher percentage of body fat on average. As a result, a well designed female routine focuses less on bulking up, than toning and achieving flexibility. Women are more likely to incur injuries by lifting too much, too soon as they build up.

Men are somewhat less flexible on average, partly due to natural differences in joints, partly owing to attitude. Men tend more often than women to short change their warm-up routines, including essential stretching exercises.

All these differences (and many more) are a matter of degree, of course. Both men and women can benefit by adapting some aspects of the routines of the opposite sex.

Women are more likely to be more open to trying something new or different, such as yoga or pilates. These focus more on being aware of different body parts, in order to maximize flexibility and overall fitness. They focus very little on achieving strength, though this is often (in part) a consequence of a good yoga or pilates routine.

For example, several yoga routines focus on balance. But balance is optimized when all the muscles help support the joints and skeleton at correct angles in a dynamic way. That is both the cause and consequence of improved strength in the muscles that help achieve that balance.

Pilates, in particular, is a coordinated system for achieving better strength and posture and breathing by using one to aid the other. It concentrates more on controlling muscle groups than building them.

Both yoga and pilates and many other systems popularized in the West in the last 20 years or so focus on the integration of mind and body, one helping the other. Both systems are helpful as therapy for certain spine and joint problems.

While men and women will continue to lay more importance on some exercise values – and hence routines – than on others, both can benefit by peeking over the fence to see how the other half lives.

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Naturally, not all goals are mutually exclusive. Building strength can combine well with improving balance, for example. Having toned, strong leg muscles helps keep joints stable and improves appearance.

Remember that any strenuous exercise should be done only after a warm-up period that includes stretching.

Spinning

One of the best exercises for toning and strengthening leg muscles is 'spinning', using a stationary bike. Using an ordinary bicycle is good too, but the exercise is less controllable and involves a lot of other muscle groups.

A 15-minute spin will help tone the calves, hamstrings and quads, improve joint flexibility and (sometimes) reduce cellulite and fat. It's also a great cardiovascular activity so you get two for the price of one when you spin.

Knee Exercises

If you want something a little less vigorous, say you only want to help strengthen the knee, here are a couple of options.

This first one is really good for those who suffer from conditions such as chondromalacia patella. That's a roughening of the cartilage underneath the knee cap, sometimes as the result of the bones not sitting properly in the 'V' of the knee joint.

Sit in a chair, back straight but not tensed. Your leg should be bent at 90 degrees, the thigh parallel to the ground, the lower leg vertical. Tense the thigh, hold for 5 seconds then release. Switch legs and repeat. Do 10 reps for each leg. Easy, huh!

Be sure to breathe normally during the exercise.

Another exercise does a little more to build strength in the muscles that control bending at the knee.

Sit up straight and breathe normally, then cross your legs at the ankle. Push forward with the rear leg and back with the front leg. (A little tricky at first, but think about it!)

Switch legs by reversing the direction of the cross. If the right leg was in front, move it to the rear. Repeat the exercise 10 times for each position.

Calf Burns

Now for something a little more strenuous.

Depending on your balance and the surface you're standing on, you may need to do this on a mat or carpet, or on a wooden floor. Avoid using a cement or metal floor.

Stand up straight, heels together, toes slightly apart. Make sure you are well-balanced.

Lift the heels, balancing on the balls of your feet. Imagine a string attached to the center of your head pulling you up. Hold for 5 seconds, then lower slowly. Repeat 10 times. Over time, as you build strength and balance, increase the length of time you're on the balls of the feet.

Vary the action by bending slightly at the knee while you still have the heels raised. This will bring the thighs (quadriceps or 'quads' and hamstrings) as well as the buttocks into play. Straighten up, then lower the heels. Repeat 10 times.

Among the many health benefits of strong, flexible legs there is one that is especially important for the older crowd. Many falls lead to broken hips, one of the leading causes of severe health problems for the elderly. A long-term practice of keeping the legs in shape will help prevent this later in life.

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Particularly today, when there are so many electronic alternatives, young people may exercise less than they should. It's during the formative years that individuals lay the groundwork for what later become healthy or poor habits.

Kids will usually become quickly bored with routines designed for adults. But the activity doesn't have to involve organized group sports, either. A gentle jog with an adult, a tennis game, swimming, golf, martial arts, bicycling, dancing, gymnastics and many other sports are enjoyable for the younger crowd.

Kids are usually sensitive to anything that appears inconsistent or hypocritical from adults. Be prepared to follow your own advice and exercise with them. That also helps parents share quality time with their kids outside the house and during activities that benefit both. Parents get the added benefit of monitoring to ensure that the kids are exercising in a safe and proper way.

Like any routine, if it produces pain – even the day after – the individual is less likely to continue. Keep it simple and build up the difficulty and length gradually. Kids are more flexible, but they too need to warm-up and gently stretch before engaging in vigorous exercise. A few minutes of static and dynamic stretching will help avoid injury.

Exercise routines should take into account the age group of the individual child.

Children from about 4-7 should focus primarily on developing basic physical skills, such as coordination and balance. These are the years when motor skills, eye-hand coordination and other things adults take for granted are still fluid. Children take to these activities naturally, as well. Jumping rope, hopscotch and other simple activities help guide the development of these skills.

From the age of 8 or so, exercises can become more vigorous in order to keep that active metabolism from turning food into fat. Here again, though, adults need to guide kids in order to build good habits and avoid injury. Weight machines are almost always a bad idea for pre-teens, for example. They're risky and unnecessary.

Gymnastics, by contrast, helps build on those basic motor skills learned earlier while developing strength, balance and keeping the endocrine system active and healthy.

For teens, the field is wide open. They have the basic bone and muscle structure that gives them the potential for high performance activity in a wide variety of activities. But here, too, the possibility of injury remains for those who don't get the proper guidance.

Teens are inclined to roughhousing and rebelliousness. Give them an outlet that directs all that energy and independence to the achievement of positive goals – fitness, endurance, high scores.

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