| Exercise
Prescription |
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A complete exercise program
should include all of these components:
- Warm-Up
- 5 to 10 minutes of light exercise before any rigorous activity
- Flexibility
Exercises - Exercises directed at your muscles,
ligaments, tendons, and joints.
- Aerobic
Exercises - Exercise directed at your
cardiovascular system.
- Resistive
Exercises - Exercises directed at your muscles and
bones.
- Cool-Down
- 5 to 10 minutes of light exercise after activity
***Stretching alone is not a
warm-up or cool-down!
***Warm-up before you stretch. Stretching cold muscles and
tendons may lead to injury.
Warm-Up
Can be any light activity that you enjoy (such as walking,
riding a bike or housework). Perform this activity for 5-10
minutes before any other type of exercise. This helps to
increase your heart rate and blood flow, warm-up your muscles,
lubricate your joints, and begin perspiration prior to
strenuous activity.
Flexibility
Exercises
Stretches can be static (exerting force by reason of
weight alone without motion) or dynamic
(exerting force by reason of weight with motion).
Dynamic stretching is advanced and is primarily for well
trained athletes. You should stretch daily and hold each
stretch for 15-30 seconds. Perform each stretch 2-3 times.
Stretching helps reduce muscle tension, promotes circulation,
and relaxes you. It also improves coordination and body
awareness. This is the single most important thing you can do
to prevent injury.
You lose 10% of your
flexibility every ten years if you do nothing.
Aerobic
Exercises
Any activity that gets your heart rate up and keeps it up for
a period of time. The intensity should be based on your level
of fitness as outlined here (fitness
chart). The frequency of training is dependent on your
goals. You should do at least 5 sessions/ week to lose weight
and 3 sessions/week minimal to gain any benefit. Ideally,
build up to exercising 30 minutes/session. However, you can
separate this into 2 or 3 shorter durations that add up to 30
minutes for the day if you can't exercise for 30 minutes
continuously. You should always wear proper shoes with
adequate support and loose fitting clothes that breathe.
Resistive
Exercises
Exercises that use your body weight, equipment (i.e. dumbbells,
ankle weights, or xerotube™) or water (pool) for resistance.
You should do a minimum of 2 sessions/week and ideally 3
sessions/week. Include exercises for all major muscle groups
(i.e. legs, arms, back, chest, and abdomen). Click here to see
a fitness chart that can help you
figure out your specific parameters.
You loss 15% of
muscle strength per decade between 50-70 years and 30% between
70-80 years due to inactivity!!
Cool-Down
Like the warm-up, should be any light activity that you enjoy.
Do after aerobic and resistive exercises. May or may not be
the same as the aerobic exercise or warm-up. Do for 5-10
minutes. Helps prevent blood from pooling in your legs, safely
lowers your heart rate, and decreases fainting or light
headed-ness.
*Use the
following formula for maximal Heart Rate (maxHR): 220 - age =
________(maxHR)
**Check with your doctor first before you
begin an exercise program.
***Start out at 5-10 minutes and increase to 30
minutes before you advance to the next level.
****Reps = repetitions or the number of times
you perform a resistive exercise from beginning to end (i.e. 8
reps of arm curls) and set = a group of repetitions for that
particular exercise.
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