Fat Loss Lifestyle Blog

It is easy to understand that most people do not think that they have enough time to work out.

And for those of us who are  working out, most of us think that we do not have enough time to properly warm up, stretch, & cool down.

But I am here to tell you that these three tools are vitally necessary for an effective work-out routine.  If you are skipping them (and I bet you are) you are very much limiting your ability to gain muscle & lose fat from your program.

The Warm Up–  It only takes 10 minutes.  But trust me, these 10 minutes will save you plenty of time in a more effective work-out, and a lot less chance of having an injury where you will lose a whole lot of time and progress.  My favorite technique is to powerwalk on a treadmill.  Get in the manual mode at a nice pace initially that does not seem too fast or too slow.

Increase the speed by .1 mph every minute.  For me ( I am 5’9″)  I start at 3.5 mph and reach 4.5 at the 10 minute mark.  If you are shorter, start slower, if you are taller, start faster.  The physical key is to lengthen out the stride (powerwalk technique) and feel the buns and the hamstrings on the back of your legs get warm.  Also really tighten up the upper body and arms.  Get them pumping hard on the last 5 minutes of the powerwalk warm up.  This serves to get blood flow in the rotator cuff area which helps a lot for upper body work-outs.

The mental key is to clear your head.  Focus on your goals and visualize what you want.  This is where I make my clients think about and see the body, health, & energy that they are going to have in the future.  No thoughts of work, family, friends during the warm up.

The warm up is vitally important to getting the most out of your work out.  It raises your core body temperature,  clears your head,  gets blood flow into the muscles you are about to work, and increases your flexibility & range of motion.  It is the time where you make the transition from the chaotic world you live in;  to your work out jungle.  You put your game face on.

Stretching– There seems to be a lot of confusion on this topic.  Should I stretch & if so, when should I stretch.  You should stretch and you should do it during the last half of your resistance training session.  At this point your body temperature is up there & your muscles have a lot of blood in them.  Spend a minute after each set in the last 1/2 of your work out to stretch & lengthen out the muscle that you just focused on.

Doing so is an easy way to clear lactic acid and other negative things that build up in a muscle that just got worked to failure.  By using this technique you will start to get more out of your last 1/2 of your work out.  Also;  your muscles will not get as sore & they will not stay sore as long.  Stretching will help them recover faster.  If you can throw in a little manual message during the stretch,  that will help also.

Cool Down - A proper cool down would be walking on a treadmill at a nice casual pace.  Spend at least 5 minutes doing this while you slow your breathing down.  A lot of times I will close my eyes and think of nothing other than slowing my breathing down.  It lowers your heart rate, gets additional lactic acid out of your legs & buns & helps you make the transition into the real world.  This is another nice time to focus on your goals & emotional elements in your committment sheet.

So there you have it;  three things that you must start to incorporate into your work outs.  Your entire work out from warm up to cool down should not last more than an hour & 15 minutes.

Please use the comments below to give me feedback on this topic.  If I get more than 5 comments on this post, I will go into further details.

Your Healthy Lifestyle Coach,

Darin