stretching — Office Worker Health

Are You Conditioned?

Before you answer the question in the heading, you will first have to identify what I mean by Conditioned as it relates to Fitness and Health. Too often when I engage people about the subject of getting healthy or in shape, I find that they have not clearly defined what being healthy looks like for their lifestyle. Aside from clinical biomarkers such as blood pressure, A1c blood sugar test, cholesterol levels etc. (which are important to determine the impact of your fitness program), the question is how would the reality of being physically conditioned add to your current lifestyle? In other words, what would you be able to do when in peak condition that you couldn’t do at your current fitness level?

How To Cool Down Properly After A Workout

I spoke about the importance of warming up and stretching before commencing a workout in a recent article. This blog is all about the stretching and cooling down required after you’ve completed your workout.

Let’s look at the steps you should be including before and after every exercise session, no matter what the workout may be (resistance or cardio training):

- Warm up

- Pre workout stretching (warm up stretches)

- WORKOUT

- Cool down

- Post workout stretching (cool down stretches)

Pre Workout Warm Up and Stretch

Warming up is critical to a better overall performance and reduces the risk of injury. It’s essential to a good workout. The safest way to exercise is to gradually raise the body’s temperature and loosen the muscles before starting into your full body workout. That’s what warm ups are designed to do. You can warm up with a light run, using the cross trainer, completing some jumping jacks or a combination of the above. Five minutes should be enough time to allocate to a warm up.