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The real guidelines can be found here. The core (for adults):

• All adults should avoid inactivity. Some physical activity is better than none, and adults who participate in any amount of physical activity gain some health benefits.
• For substantial health benefits, adults should do at least 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) a week of moderate-intensity, or 75 minutes (1 hour and 15 minutes) a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic activity. Aerobic activity should be performed in episodes of at least 10 minutes, and preferably, it should be spread throughout the week.
• For additional and more extensive health benefits, adults should increase their aerobic physical activity to 300 minutes (5 hours) a week of moderate-intensity, or 150 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity. Additional health benefits are gained by engaging in physical activity beyond this amount.
• Adults should also do muscle-strengthening activities that are moderate or high intensity and involve all major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week, as these activities provide additional health benefits.

TL;DR -

If you are completely inactive, change that ASAP. If you can only take 5 steps at a brisk pace, take 5 steps today, then tomorrow try for 6 and keep increasing until you are walking 10 minutes twice each day.

If you are somewhat active, keep track of your time each week and increase it until you reach a minimum of 150 minutes. Then seriously consider increasing it to 300 minutes.

Also, everyone, everyone should lift weights. Do compound lifts (squat, deadlift, bench press, upright press, barbell row, power cleans, etc) using free weights (not machines). If you are an absolute beginner, get a copy of Starting Strength (highly recommended by just about everyone) or google StrongLifts which is possibly a knock-off, and possibly inferior in some trivial way. Go to ExRx right now and bookmark it, you'll refer back to it often, I promise.

Alternative to daily walking (you might need to walk a little once a week to fill in the minutes) - The hacker diet exercise plan (based on 5BX).

I found nothing definitive, but here's what I gather (using US as baseline since we're talking American football):

My results are inconclusive but my best guess is that linebackers are modestly larger and stronger ((26% & 111%) proportionally to average men, versus men to women (18% & 94%).

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...
http://www.exrx.net/Testing/We...
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What...
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/...

For aerobic exercise, there's a free treadmill simulator called "go jogging" right outside your front door. If you want lower impact exercise, bicycling to work will save you money on your commute and give you a lot of exercise for a small marginal cost of time. (If your automobile commute is 20 minutes but your bicycle commute is 45 minutes, you'll get 45 minutes of exercise at a cost of only 25 minutes.)

For weight lifting, $200 will buy you an exercise bench and a set of adjustable dumbbells. You can exercise just about every muscle group that way.

How much exercise do you get? Try adding some resistance training. I like these wrist curls. You can also use a dumbbell.

How much exercise do you get? Try adding some resistance training. I like these wrist curls. You can also use a dumbbell.

There's some evidence out there that weight lifting and high-impact interval training will cause you to lose fat faster than just cardio type activity will. Take a look at these articles (Exercise+diet, HIIT).

There's some evidence out there that weight lifting and high-impact interval training will cause you to lose fat faster than just cardio type activity will. Take a look at these articles (Exercise+diet, HIIT).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-435233/Children-banned-playing-tag-school-playground.html

and
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295165,00.html

and
http://www.exrx.net/Questions/Tag.html

Actually, as I said in this post's second-cousin post, I stand corrected on the anaerobic vs. aerobic weight loss front, specifically for high-intensity interval training. This is good news for me because I hate aerobic exercise with a burning passion, but I quite like anaerobic exercise.

As for my "arguments(whining) about being fat and not being able to fix (or at least improve)" myself - I'm not sure what you're talking about. I was skinny, and therefore unhappy. I worked out until I was buff, and therefore happy. I was then lazy for several years until I was fat, and therefore unhappy. Now I'm working out and am over halfway back to being buff, and therefore happy, again. :) As anyone who knew me during the lazy stage will know, I openly admitted it. "I'm being lazy at the moment, when I get fat enough to piss me off I'll start working out again." And I did. :P

Anaerobic exercise in the form of high-intensity interval training was also found in one study to result in greater loss of subcutaneous fat, even though the subjects expended fewer than half as many calories during exercise.

(More info here.)

Going from ~70kg to ~85k felt like I'd upgraded my body from an econobox to a sports car. I could suddenly do things like lift a heavy bag with one hand, or climb a rope just using hands. The general feeling of ease throughout the day was well worth it. Of course, once I was happy with my body I stopped putting in the effort, and after three years of drinking beer, eating pizza and playing WoW I was up to 105kg with the beginnings of a beer gut. Since then I've been making a moderate effort and I'm back down to 95kg, but I could still stand to lose 5-10kg so I'm starting to ramp up again. :) I've definitely learned something about weight loss today too (it's time to get the dumbbells out again!) so thank you for the interesting discussion. :)

Huh. What do you know. I've always heard them called that.

here you go.

It's a fairly quick and easy way to hit lats and biceps without having to find a place to do pullups.barbell row

I recommend http://www.exrx.net/ as a decent source of exercise information, especially for weight training. Under "exercise instruction" you'll find workout templates.

Personally I have a 3-day split gym workout (meaning the muscle groups are split over three training sessions, allowing adequate rest) and I only do two sets per exercise: one warmup set of 12 repetitions at 50% target weight, which is really just to get a feel for the exercise and one set of 8-12 reps (or until failure) at target weight. ("target weight" being a weight I can lift for 8-12 repetitions, and if I do 12 or more, I increase the weight by 5-10% the next time.)

The main benefit of doing so few sets is it keeps the time you need to spend at the gym low. It seems people who have routines that have them spending more than an hour at a time lifting tend to lose motivation. On the other hand, doing only one "real" set per exercise, you need to really push yourself to do the very maximum you can each time to get the full benefits of your work.

Ultimately, it boils down to finding something you enjoy. I go to the gym with a friend. If I went alone - and I have - I'd be much more likely to just blow it off and not go at all. (the "ah, I have so much stuff I want to do" syndrome.) Probably, it's best to find several things you like. You'll need cardio exercise to really burn calories - muscle training will help with body composition and raising your metabolism, but can't replace cardio. Try riding a bike, in-line skating, running, walking, swimming... Whatever you like. Then vary what you do - any given type of exercise will train your body in ways the others won't, and you won't get bored as easily if you have some variety in your routines.

Whatever you do, if you want to see progress, keep pushing yourself. Your fitness improves as your body adapts itself to the level of physical strain you're putting on yourself. For best results, you need to make sure to keep giving your body the signal to keep improving by not getting stuck at running 2 kilometres in 10 minutes, or doing 12 reps of bench presses with 60 kilos of weight. Run further, or faster (or both!) and lift more than you have before. Your body will improve as you test your limits and break them. Just be aware of what those limits are and don't break yourself in the process. Start slow, be persistent.

I'm 61. Squat 150, dead 150, curl 45 ... I'm a strong old man. Go here:

http://exrx.net/WeightTraining/Instructions.html

This. Slashdotters don't know fitness, and the mods are no better if the posts marked "informative" are any indication.

http://www.stumptuous.com/cms/index.php

That's the first place you should be. It says "women's training," but almost all of it applies equally to men, experienced or not. It'll give you a grounding in lifting theory, proper nutrition, and some of the more common gym mistakes. If you ever decide to join to a gym, you'll want someone to show you the correct form for freeweight and cable exercises so you don't dodder yourself into a pulled muscle, impingement, imbalance, asymmetry, or any of a dozen maladies that befall novice lifters.

To more directly answer your question, you can get a decent upper-body workout at home. Legs, not so much. Not without additional weights, though lunges and calf-raises are a start.

Pushups are the default shoulder/chest/tricep movement. The height of your legs and the position of your hands and elbows dictate the particular muscle groups involved. Elbows in, hands low, feet low, and it's mostly shoulders and lower chest. Elbows out, hands higher, feet elevated, and it's mostly upper chest. With hands together and elbows out, triceps are more heavily implicated. Changing the positions, sets (3-8), reps (8-25), and tempo (0.5-5s lowering) will provide all the variation you need.

Pullups are the standard movement for lats (latissimus dorsi; Google it) and biceps. If you can't do any, practice lowering yourself for 5 seconds at a clip. If you don't have porch stairs or some equivalently sturdy implement to hang from, buy a bar that'll wedge in a doorframe. They're cheap and effective. Before your workouts, pick a number between 20 and 40. Do that many (or lower yourself that many times), no matter how many sets it takes. Raise the number as you become stronger.

Crunches are the basic ab movement. Situps will work your hip flexors as well. If you can do more than 20 of these untrained, you're probably doing them wrong. Practice flexing your abs at the top of the movement. Tempos, like all these movements, should be something like 0.5s second up, hold for a 0.5s, down for 2s, 0s pause. See here for notes on form:

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html

To work the rear musculature of your shoulders and upper back, pick up a set of elastic resistance bands. You don't need many; three is plenty, two perfectly adequate. You're looking to do reverse flyes. They aren't a long-term substitute for proper rows, but they'll at least prevent you from getting the cro-magnon posture that's so prevalent among the curling and benching crowd.

When you bore with all that, you should either buy yourself a gym membership, or a squat rack, a barbell, weights, and an adjustable bench. Alternately, assemble yourself a set of parallettes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallettes

Gymnasts use them to keep in shape when they're away from the gym. I have a set. They're a fantastic workout, and they add a lot of variety and resistance to the sorts of exercises you can do on your own. Surely you wouldn't mind looking like a gymnast?

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee6/trickwire/2007%20August/RajBhavsar2.jpg

Anyone who says he hasn't had sex in a X many days/months/years/decades is lying..

How can you tell? By the size of the Brachioradialis: http://exrx.net/Muscles/Brachioradialis.html

Or doesn't masturbation constitute as a release of sexual urges, thus having sex with yourself?

Wikipedia has lots of links to actual research papers showing the advantages to HIIT when it comes to fat loss. Since you seem to have a hard time using a quick search I'll even post them.

One study concludes:

In conclusion, this study showed that moderate-intensity aerobic training that improves the maximal aerobic power does not change anaerobic capacity and that adequate high-intensity intermittent training may improve both anaerobic and aerobic energy supplying systems significantly, probably through imposing intensive stimuli on both systems.


Another study also concludes:

These findings show that high intensity interval exercise produces improvements in body composition, fitness, and acute RMR compared to low intensity steady state training.


Sadly, I can't find the original study I read which talked about glycogen stores and HIIT. If you like to run marathons, then go for it. If you want to burn fat and achieve an athletic look HIIT is the more effective method.

Another study here. Page with a summary of a lot of studies here.

I think it's pretty clear that people who are still doing steady state for fat loss are missing out.

You burn about 2000 kilocalories per day just by existing.

Not necessarily; your basal metabolic rate (BMR) depends on your age, sex, weight, etc. and for a lot of people, a BMR of 2000 kcal a day is on the high side. Calculate your BMR here.

Who said he should do plenty of chest exercises?

Anyway, do your:

Deadlifts
Squats
Rows

And add for example cleans, benchpress, legcurls and military press if you want to add more exercises. (Stomach exercises such as crunches or front squats probably helps aswell.)

Sitting in a quite ergonomic posture probably helps to but if you do those exercises I doubt it matters that much how you sit...

Who said he should do plenty of chest exercises?

Anyway, do your:

Deadlifts
Squats
Rows

And add for example cleans, benchpress, legcurls and military press if you want to add more exercises. (Stomach exercises such as crunches or front squats probably helps aswell.)

Sitting in a quite ergonomic posture probably helps to but if you do those exercises I doubt it matters that much how you sit...

Who said he should do plenty of chest exercises?

Anyway, do your:

Deadlifts
Squats
Rows

And add for example cleans, benchpress, legcurls and military press if you want to add more exercises. (Stomach exercises such as crunches or front squats probably helps aswell.)

Sitting in a quite ergonomic posture probably helps to but if you do those exercises I doubt it matters that much how you sit...

Who said he should do plenty of chest exercises?

Anyway, do your:

Deadlifts
Squats
Rows

And add for example cleans, benchpress, legcurls and military press if you want to add more exercises. (Stomach exercises such as crunches or front squats probably helps aswell.)

Sitting in a quite ergonomic posture probably helps to but if you do those exercises I doubt it matters that much how you sit...

Who said he should do plenty of chest exercises?

Anyway, do your:

Deadlifts
Squats
Rows

And add for example cleans, benchpress, legcurls and military press if you want to add more exercises. (Stomach exercises such as crunches or front squats probably helps aswell.)

Sitting in a quite ergonomic posture probably helps to but if you do those exercises I doubt it matters that much how you sit...

Who said he should do plenty of chest exercises?

Anyway, do your:

Deadlifts
Squats
Rows

And add for example cleans, benchpress, legcurls and military press if you want to add more exercises. (Stomach exercises such as crunches or front squats probably helps aswell.)

Sitting in a quite ergonomic posture probably helps to but if you do those exercises I doubt it matters that much how you sit...

Who said he should do plenty of chest exercises?

Anyway, do your:

Deadlifts
Squats
Rows

And add for example cleans, benchpress, legcurls and military press if you want to add more exercises. (Stomach exercises such as crunches or front squats probably helps aswell.)

Sitting in a quite ergonomic posture probably helps to but if you do those exercises I doubt it matters that much how you sit...

On the other hand, back pain is the single biggest cause of chronic pain in adults. I had a nasty little spell of it a few years ago when I wasn't sitting right, and at one point I had trouble just walking - I was literally hobbling. My fiancée has a very bad back, and occasionally it goes - then she's in intense pain for a couple of days until it eases, then merely a lot of pain for a week or two.

The cure to back pain isn't a fancy schmancy chair. If you want your back pain to go away you need to Deadlift and Overhead Squat. Start with just the bar (or a broomstick) at first, and concentrate on maintainig a health arch in back.

Back pain isn't prevalent in today's society because our chairs are harder than in years past. Back pain is prevalent in today's society because we spend all of our time on our asses. Even 20 minutes 3 times a week can make a big difference.

On the other hand, back pain is the single biggest cause of chronic pain in adults. I had a nasty little spell of it a few years ago when I wasn't sitting right, and at one point I had trouble just walking - I was literally hobbling. My fiancée has a very bad back, and occasionally it goes - then she's in intense pain for a couple of days until it eases, then merely a lot of pain for a week or two.

The cure to back pain isn't a fancy schmancy chair. If you want your back pain to go away you need to Deadlift and Overhead Squat. Start with just the bar (or a broomstick) at first, and concentrate on maintainig a health arch in back.

Back pain isn't prevalent in today's society because our chairs are harder than in years past. Back pain is prevalent in today's society because we spend all of our time on our asses. Even 20 minutes 3 times a week can make a big difference.

Often, the reason old people become so weak is that they are afraid to do things, or at least do them actively (my own grandmothers are afraid to be outside) - so having a body suit would be amazing, if they actually leave the house!!

Often, the reason old people become so weak is that they are afraid to do things, or at least do them actively (my own grandmothers are afraid to be outside) - so having a body suit would be amazing, if they actually leave the house!!

If you're wondering about the 176 and 397 pounds, someone translated from kilos and didn't want to round the numbers. 176 lbs = 80 kg, 397 lbs = 180 kg.

As for what leg press is, here is a description. The numbers are somewhat meaningless as they vary a lot with the equipment used. I can tell you that any untrained guy can likely do 80 kg, while few if any can do 180 without training.

In case anyone else is interested in bodybuilding, I highly recommend the parents link. ExRx is an exceptional site.

In case anyone is interested, the article does not discuss bodybuilding.

I bought a pair of cheap dumbbells from Walmart and have been very pleased with the results. ExRx is a good source for exercise ideas. They index exercises by muscle group, describe how they are performed, and show how with a short video clip. I exercise wrist, upper arm and deltoids on day one; back and shoulders on day two; with day three as a rest day. I saw pleasing results soon with only light weight (5-10 lbs). I also try to walk for 30 to 60 minutes a few times a week.

For weight control, I'm trying the Hacker's Diet.