One of the most common mistakes people make in their fitness plan is skipping the warmup and/ or cool down. The warmup and cooldown are very important parts of a healthy exercise program. Properly done, they will help you enjoy your workout more, get a more effective workout, and prevent some of the inevitable muscle soreness following a workout. Warming up helps the muscles contract better, lubricates joints, and allows your heart rate to increase gradually. This helps prevent soreness, injury, and that uncomfortable feeling in our stomach from having the heartrate go up too fast.

Cooling down prevents blood from pooling in the extremities and muscles from stiffening up. Blood pooling in the lower legs can lead to swelling, and more soreness from buidup of lactic acid.

So, set aside five minutes to warm up; any aerobic exercise, such as cycling, walking or the elliptical will do, but make sure to do it at an easy pace. Yoga movements such as deep breathing, followed by arm circles and the cat/cow stretch or easy forward folds makes a great warmup. Toward the end of the workout, ease your pace, slow your breathing, then, stretch for about five minutes. This makes a nice transition from exercise to rest and recovery.

Recommended Fitness Event - Nov 18 - Bike the Bend for Literacy,
benefitting the Ft Bend Literacy Council. Ride lengths from 10 to 59 miles. For more info go to www.ftbendliteracy.org.

Have a healthy week. Be healthy, get fit, stay strong!

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