What should I include in my program?
Every exercise session should include a warm-up, conditioning phase, and a cool down. The warm-up helps your body adjust slowly from rest to exercise.
A warm-up reduces the stress on your heart and muscles, slowly increases your breathing, circulation (heart rate), and body temperature. It also helps improve flexibility and reduce muscle soreness.
The best warm-up includes stretching, range of motion activities, and beginning of the activity at a low intensity level.
The conditioning phase follows the warm-up. During this phase, the benefits of exercise are gained and calories are burned. During the conditioning phase, you should monitor the intensity of the activity.
The intensity is how hard you are exercising, which can be measured by checking your heart rate. Your health care provider can give you more information on monitoring your heart rate.
Over time, you can work on increasing the duration of the activity. The duration is how long you exercise during one session.
The cool-down phase is the last phase of your exercise session. It allows your body to gradually recover from the conditioning phase. Your heart rate and blood pressure will return to near resting values. Cool-down does not mean to sit down. In fact, do not sit, stand still, or lie down right after exercise. This might cause you to feel dizzy, lightheaded, or have heart palpitations (fluttering in your chest).
The best cool-down is to slowly decrease the intensity of your activity. You might also do some of the same stretching activities you did in the warm-up phase.