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Get A Handle On Your Diet And Start An Exercise Regime |
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Written by Dawn Robertshaw
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Page 2 of 2
*Always warm up before beginning your exercise activity using smooth and fluid movement. The purpose of the warm up is to minimize discomfort and prevent injury and loosen up your muscles for the exercise to come.
*Begin with a couple of deep breaths, inhaling through the nose and exhaling from your mouth.
*When you plan to walk or run, do just a few hundred yards at a slower walk or a gentler jog.
*Use the cool down routine in the reverse of the warm-up, gently slowing down. This will enable your breathing and heart rate to return to normal.
*Learn to listen to your body and differentiate between good pain and bad pain.
*Never exercise on a full or empty stomach.
*Drink plenty of water to reduce the chance of dehydration. Experts usually recommend 16 ounces either one or two hours before exercising.
*Always use stretching routines. These are not just for jocks and fitness gurus but should be used by everyone. The older you are, the more important this becomes as you can help retain flexibility and good range of movement for all your daily activities.
*When warming up and stretching, use the movements for five to ten minutes. This will help to loosen your muscles.
*Do not bounce when warming up with stretching as you can cause tears in your muscle fibers.
*To increase your flexibility, hold each stretch for fifteen to twenty seconds or longer.
*Be sure you stretch lightly during warm up to prevent stretch reflex. This is caused by over using a cold muscle.
*Breathe slowly and evenly throughout your warm up.
*If you have a tendency to become stiff, take a hot shower or bath before beginning your warm up.
*Breathing is extremely important when exercising as your body need to process oxygen that will transfer from your lungs through the bloodstream to the muscles that are being worked. Normal breathing is shallow meaning that the air is not reaching deep into the lungs. This can tighten neck muscles which can cause stiffness and pain in the neck, shoulder upper back and chest.
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