Here are some tips for exercise that we hope you will find beneficial.

Warming Up

''Warming up is more than just stretching,'' warns Robyn M. Stuhr, exercise physiologist.

Although you should stretch the muscles you'll be using before you begin exercising, ''If you stretch when you're cold, you really don't get as effective a stretch, and sometimes you can actually hurt yourself.''

Her advice: ''Take a little walk, jog in place, or hop on the exercise bike for 5 to 10 minutes to increase your muscle temperature and get blood flowing to the muscles you'll be using. Then you can do your stretches.

Here's how she would do it:

''If I were going to jog or take a brisk walk, I'd leave my house and take the first couple blocks at a walking pace that felt comfortable to me, not pushing it at all. That might take me 5 minutes. Then I see a mailbox next to a fire hydrant, and I pause and lean into the mailbox and do my calf stretch. Next I put my foot up on the fire hydrant and do a hamstring stretch. That takes me 2 minutes, because I'll hold each stretch for 30 seconds.

''Then I might walk for another block or so and gradually begin some brisk walking or running, or whatever I'm going to do. The idea is to warm up first, then stretch the muscles you're going to use, and then start exercising.''

Learning to Play

Have you ever wondered why you always see guys, young and older, playing informal games of basketball or touch football - and maybe wondered why you don't see women doing the same?

''If women thought about putting some play into their lives, and about the importance of play, a lot more women would be doing it,'' says Judy Mahle Lutter, president of the Melponmene Institute and co-author of The Bodywise Woman.

''That's why a lot of guys go and pick up a basketball. It's not that they're at all interested or very interested in fitness--they're doing it because it's fun, and they've known it's fun since they were kids.''

Looking at exercise as a ''fitness program'' can be a real downer for a lot of women, Lutter points out. And yet women have never thought that they have permission to play, so they feel a little bit guilty about it. Juggling hectic family and career schedules only adds to the dilemna of why women don't exercise. They just don't have the time.

In The Bodywise Woman, the authors suggest writing down everything you do during the day and how long you do it - how many hours you spend working, commuting, running errands, cooking and cleaning, etc. This list should include any time you spend just for yourself: reading, watching television, talking, pursuing a hobby, or exercising. Do this for 3 or 4 days in a row.

''Everyone should see some days where, with a little ingenuity, there is time to do something,'' Lutter says. This exercise also helps you examine the quality of your life, to answer the question: Do I have the right to play?

''It's real important to have women think about what is fun and what they like to do,'' Lutter states. ''If they are playing, then they are much more likely to start and continue something.''

Weight-Bearing Exercise

After people reach age 45 they begin to lose muscle and bone mass, and osteoporosis becomes a concern. That is why exercise, especially weight bearing exercise either with hand weights or at the gym, is essential to reversing conditions such as loss of lean body mass and bone density. Strength training also increases your metabolic rate so that you burn more calories throughout the day, no matter what you are doing.

A brisk 20 to 30 minute walk three times a week is a favorite exercise routine among many women who contact Women's Health America. And, because walking is a weight-bearing form of exercise, it has the added benefit of building strong bones. Other forms of weight-bearing exercise include dancing, tennis, certain yoga positions, running, and weight training. The quantity and type of exercise are less important than exercising regularly. We recommend about 20 minutes of exercise three or four times a week.

The Right Equipment

Shoes: Most women's feet are shaped differently than men's -- in general our heels are narrower, with the ball of the foot being broader in relation to the heel. To get a good fit, Robyn Stuhr recommends shopping for athletic shoes at the end of the day. At that time, your feet are a little more swollen, mimicking what happens when the blood flows into your feet during exercise. Wear the socks, thick or thin, that you intend to wear during exercise. Try on several different brands of shoes, find a piece of hard floor and jump on one foot and hop from one foot to the other, to gauge the fit. ''Athletic shoes should feel comfortable right out of the box,'' Stuhr advises.

Heart Monitors: Heart monitors can be fun to use and help you stay at your target heart rate throughout your workout. With a steady digital readout, they let you know your heart rate--if you go too slowly or too fast, some models beep at you. The monitors that use a strap around your chest are much more accurate for outside activities, Stuhr says. The monitors that attach to your ear or fingers, because of their design, give good readings only if you're inside and using a treadmill or stationary cycle.

Exercise resistance bands: These elastic bands are great for strengthening and building both upper-and-lower-body muscle, and they eliminate the need to buy many dumbbells in different weights. Long used by physical therapists, the bands are several feet long and have handgrips on each end. You can vary and increase the resistance for weight training by stepping on the bands to shorten them or tying them to a doorknob. The bands are usually available at exercise or sporting equipment stores.

Target Heart Rate and Other Tools

Target heart rate: Several different formulas give you your target heart rate, but the standard is as follows:

• 220 minus your age=X
• Multiply X by 70% for lower number of your target heart rate range.
• Then multiply X by 85% for the upper number of your target heart rate range.

Your target heart rate range should fall within those two numbers. To measure that rate during exercise, either use a heart monitor or count the number of beats in your pulse (taken at your neck below your ear or at your wrist) during a 15-second interval and multipl that number by 4.

If you do a longer workout--a 45-60 minute walk or run, for example--your target heart range should be between 60% and 75% of X, Stuhr advises.

Perceived exertion: The American College of Sports Medicine has suggested using the idea of perceived exertion as an alternative to the target heart rate. You simply rate how your exercise feels, ranging from ''light'' to ''somewhat hard'' to ''very hard.''

''If I were to ask you how you were feeling, you'd want to be able to say, 'This is somewhat hard,''' Stuhr explains. ''It shouldn't be hard, and it shouldn't be light--it should be somewhere in between.'' For people with poor body awareness, however, the target heart rate is more helpful.

Resting heart rate: The best time to take your resting heart rate is first thing in the morning, on a day when you don't have to wake with the alarm clock. Measure your resting heart rate by counting the number of beats in your pulse during a 15-second interval and multiply that number by 4.

''As you're training, continue to take your resting rate on non-work days,'' Stuhr says. ''If your resting heart rate goes up in the morning instead of down, then that's a sign that you're over-training.''