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01This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Marco in Italy.
02Here is Marco's question.
03Dear Teacher, I want to understand more when to use the word regimen for exercise or other actions.
04Thank you.
05I'm happy to answer this question, Marco.
06A regimen is usual and repeated action, especially in training.
07In health care, it is a systematic plan to improve a person's health.
08A training regimen, for example, can include exercises people can do to help them get the results they want.
09For example, a long-distance runner's regimen might include runs of 10 or 20 kilometers every week.
10Note that we often put another noun before the word regimen to help identify it more clearly.
11These are called attributive nouns.
12They act similarly to adjectives, as in the following examples.
13In fact, you can more clearly identify any kind of regimen by placing an attributive noun before it.
14For example, musicians can have a practice regimen.
15And students can have a study regimen.
16To express what actions or steps are in a regimen, we can use the verb and preposition consist of, as the following example shows.
17Note that native speakers might substitute the word routine for regimen in some situations.
18Here are some examples.
19What practice routine do you follow?
20You can use this daily routine to improve your fitness.
21A medical regimen is a series of repeated treatments.
22For example, a doctor might tell a patient to take a certain medicine two times a day for two weeks.
23We often put adjectives, like medical, before the word regimen also.
24Daily and effective are commonly used, as in...
25Try to include long walks in your daily regimen.
26You need an effective regimen for losing weight.
27And it is not unusual to use both an adjective and an attributive noun, like in this example.
28She swims two kilometers a day as part of a strict training regimen.
29For our readers and listeners, what are your questions about American English?
30Do you have a special study regimen?
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32Send us an email at learningenglish at voanews.com.
33And please let us know where you are from, too.
34And that's Ask a Teacher.
35I'm Andrew Smith.
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