A Complete Exercise Prescription

1. Warm-Up - 5 to 10 minutes of light exercise before activity
2. Flexibility Exercises - Exercises directed at your muscles, ligaments, tendons, and joints.
3. Aerobic Exercises - Exercise directed at your cardiovascular system.
4. Resistive Exercises - Exercises directed at your muscles and bones.
5. 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.

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 (ie. 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 (ie. 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.

by Carol Glasscock, MS,PT