The Five Components to a Successful Fitness Program
The 5 Stages of Fitness
Every effective fitness program should include these five components, all of which you can do at home:
A warm-up: Warming up is not the same as stretching, which should be avoided when muscles are cold. For more information on stretching, check out The Importance of Stretching. Warming up usually consists of low-key cardiovascular activity such as an easy walk outside, jump rope, a bike ride or jogging before running.
How: To warm up, gently use all the same muscles you plan to use for your workout. The length of your warm-up will depend on how intensely you plan to exercise. For most people, between 5 and 30 minutes is sufficient.
An aerobic workout: Aerobic exercise is any activity that gets your blood pumping and large muscle groups working. Any cardiovascular exercise like heavy cleaning or gardening, running, jogging, swimming, cycling, and anything that forces your cardiovascular system (lungs, heart, blood vessels) to work for extended periods of time.
How: Most people should aim to get around 30 minutes of moderate cardiovascular activity at least five days each week
Resistance (strength-building) exercises: Strength training goes a long way in terms of supporting bone health, making aerobic exercise more productive, preventing injury, and facilitating healthy aging. You should give yourself a day in between strength training to allow your body to recover and rebuild the muscle tissue from the stimulus of lifting.
How: The resistance portion of your workout can be as simple as squatting on a chair at home, push-ups, planks, using small dumbbells or a weighted backpack or other movements that require you to use your own body weight. Its recommended that beginners do one set of eight to ten exercises for the major muscle groups, eight to twelve repetitions (reps) to fatigue, two to three days per week.
You can step up the pace of your strength workout by doing compound exercises -- those that work more than one muscle group at a time. Be sure your strength workout covers all major muscle groups, in your upper body, lower body, abdominal and back.
A cool-down: Cooling down after a workout is as important as warming up. It’s good to stretch when you’re cooling down because your limbs, muscles and joints are still warm. Stretching can help reduce the buildup of lactic acid, which can lead to muscles cramps and stiffness.
How: Any cardiovascular work at a low level to bring the heart rate down to a resting state. A cool down can last for 3-10 minutes and includes stretches or gentle variations of the movements you did during your workout to cool down after jogging you might do a brisk walk for 2-3 minutes, then gradually taper your pace to a stroll. If you did squats and push-ups, you’ll want to stretch your glutes, quads, chest and triceps.
Flexibility: Flexibility training is important to reduce risk of injury for all activities that we perform. Good flexibility not only reduces the risk of pain and injury, it promotes good posture, relieves joint stress, increases range of motion, and improves quality of life.
How: Increase your flexibility with floor stretches or my favorite — yoga poses. They can be done as part of a workout routine or on their own at any time throughout the day. Make sure your body is properly warmed up before doing any of these exercises. Do these exercises at least 4 times per week for 10–20 minutes at a time.
Tips:
You can do strength work in the same workout as your aerobic work, or split them up. Just be sure to warm up and cool down every time you exercise.
No matter what type of exercise you do, be sure to start slowly and gradually increase your workout time and intensity. And don't forget to listen to your body.
Focus on the muscles that you think you should be working, It’s about developing that muscle mind connection. Close your eyes when you are starting a new exercise to see if you feel it working the correct muscle. If you're working your abs and you feel it in your neck, then it's not right. Close your eyes and start to tune in to your body.