Cool Down Properly
Fifth, make sure you cool down properly after you're done exercising. If you've had a good exercise session, you've worked up a good sweat. All of your skin pores are wide open. Your heart and breathing rate is still elevated. Your muscles are still heated and fueled up. A cool down period allows your body to slowly come back down to normal levels. It also allows all of the excess wastes and byproducts that your body produces during exercise to be flushed from your system.
Keep the following in mind:
- Keep moving. You want your routine to taper off, not stop abruptly, so slow down the pace significantly - but keep moving. Also, do not sit or lie down immediately after exercise. You want to keep moving for 5-10 minutes or your muscles will begin to stiffen and cramp.
- Dry off as quickly as possible by toweling off or by changing into dry clothes. You're probably wet from perspiration so make sure you don't get chilled. Avoid standing in front of fans, drafts, or air vents until you have dried off.
- Do not gulp water or sports drinks. Take small but frequent sips. Gulping water will lead to nausea.
- Finish your exercise routine with stretching. Stretching prevents your muscles from trying to immediately "snap back" to normal the same way a rubber band does when you stretch it and then let go. Stretching after exercise will prevent a lot of the stiffness and soreness that most people experience the next day.
- Focus on taking slow, deep breaths in order to remove any excess carbon dioxide in your system.
Repeat the Process
Sixth, you exercise to improve your physical health and that's a very important benefit. However, in order to keep this benefit long term, you've got to repeat the process on a consistent and regular basis.
Most fitness experts recommend that you exercise for at least 20-30 minutes, 3 times per week. Note that this does not include your warm up or cool down periods so you've got to add an additional 20 minutes to these times. That's essentially an hour by the time you include changing clothes, showering afterwards, and so on. One hour. Get comfortable with the idea. Get out your calendar and find where you can schedule in an hour for exercise, and then write it in.
The key to success in any fitness program is consistency. In fact, it doesn't really matter what kind of exercise you do, so long as you do it consistently.
Make Sure You Keep Score
Lastly, it's important to keep a Health Journal or Exercise Diary so you can track your physical activity, especially on those days when you don't feel like you're making any progress. It's highly motivating to look back over the past few weeks and realize that you are, in fact, making significant progress, day by day, week by week. An Exercise Diary also helps assure consistency by reminding you exactly how long it's been since your last workout.
Your Next Step
Now that you know the importance of preparation, the next step is to discuss and evaluate the various Types of Exercise, or you can return to the Physical Health page.
Page Updated: 10/23/06
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