A warm up is
like starting up the body, and its goal is to ensure that exercising is
pleasant and safe. A warm up is done at low effort - suitable forms of warm
up exercise include walking, jogging and training on an exercise cycle,
stepper, crosstrainer or rowing machine. A warm up should get you lightly
sweating, and it should last for about 10 minutes, but you should never feel
tired after this. To conclude the warm up, stretch the muscles that you will
use in the workout. Stretches are fairly short, about 5-10 seconds each.
As a result of a correct warm-up, your suppleness improves, muscle and
aerobic power increases, the risk of injury decreases – and your desire to
exercise will increase!
A cool down is just as important as a warm up. The purpose of a cool
down is to return the body and mind to rest, as well as advance the body's
recovery from the strain of exercise. You can do the cool down by gradually
lightening your exercise.
Finally, carefully stretch the muscles used in the exercise to their length
at rest. The cool down stretches last clearly longer than warm up stretches,
for about 20-30 seconds. Don't forget to drink enough fluids after the
workout.
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