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Warm-Up Exercise

Always Warm up First - before doing other exercises.

Physical exercise, especially aerobic exercise, is a very effective method of relieving stress, but not if you injure yourself in the process.

Warm-up exercise gets your body ready for more strenuous activities. Warm up exercises alone are beneficial for relieving stress, so even on the days where you are not up to a more strenuous routine, you can just do your warm-ups.

A simple walk around the block or warming up indoors using a stationary bike or treadmill, followed by a few minutes of easy stretches is enough to increase blood flow to the muscles – improving flexibility and preventing injury or soreness. Warming up also slowly increases your heart rate & breathing to ease your body into exercising.

If you are going for a run or even a brisk walk you should start with a slow walk around the block, come back home and stretch all your muscles, not just the muscles you will be using when walking. Your body functions as a unit. Then you can go for a brisk walk, making sure that you end your walk or run with 5 minutes of walking, gradually slowing down your pace, and then a few more minutes of stretching.

Alternately, you can do some lunges, marching on the spot, or dancing. Always start slowly and gradually increase intensity. After about 5 minutes you should feel warmer and be perspiring lightly.

Cooling Down is also important to let your body slowly adjust to its resting state and to prevent soreness later on. Suddenly stopping a strenuous activity can cause dizziness as the blood can pool in your muscles. You should keep walking / moving for another five minutes to let your heart rate and body temperature to come down gradually and help to flush waste products from the muscles. Follow by a few minutes of stretching

Stretching should be done after your body is already warmed up because you are more flexible when your body temperature is higher. Dynamic stretches - swinging/kicking your legs, swinging your arms in circles -are suitable as part of your warm up as the motion keeps you from cooling off. Static stretches (holding each stretch for 10 - 20 seconds)) are suitable as part of cooling down.

Warming up before strengthening exercises increases circulation to the muscles and reduces the risk of muscle injury.

Warming up before aerobic exercise, stretching and strengthening exercise is essential to help prevent injuries.

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