Chapter 8: Cardio Crash Course 107
People who are out of shape need to warm up the longest. Their bodies take
longer to get into the exercise groove because their muscles aren’t used to
working hard. If you’re a beginner, any exercise is high-intensity exercise. As
you get more fit, your body adapts and becomes more efficient, thereby
warming up more quickly.
Many people skip their warm-up because they’re in a hurry. Cranking up the
LifeCycle or hitting the weight room right away seems like a more efficient
use of time. Bad idea. Skimp on your warm-up, and you’re a lot more likely to
injure yourself. Besides, when you ease into your workout, you enjoy it a lot
more. A trainer we know says, “If you don’t have time to warm up, you don’t
have time to work out!”
What exactly does warming up do for you? Well, for one thing, a warm-up
warms you up — literally. It increases the temperature in your muscles and
in the tissues that connect muscle to bone (tendons) and bone to bone (liga-
ments). Warmer muscles and joints are more pliable and, therefore, less likely
to tear. Warming up also helps redirect your blood flow from places such as
your stomach and spleen to the muscles that you’re using to exercise. This
blood flow gives you more stamina by providing your muscles with more nutri-
ents and oxygen. In other words, you tire more quickly if you don’t warm up.
Finally, warming up allows your heart rate to increase at a safe, gradual pace.
If you don’t warm up, your heart rate will shoot up too quickly, and you’ll feel
like you’re walking through a knee-high snowdrift.
Cooling down .....................................................................................
After your workout, don’t stop suddenly and make a dash for the shower
or plop on the couch. Ease out of your workout just as you eased into it, by
walking, jogging, or cycling lightly. If you’ve been using a stair-climber at
Level 5 for 20 minutes, you could cool down by dropping to Level 4 for a
couple minutes, then to Level 3, and so on. This cooldownshould last five
to ten minutes — longer if you’ve done an especially hard workout.
The purpose of the cooldown is the reverse of the warm-up. At this point,
your heart is jumping, and blood is pumping furiously through your muscles.
You want your body to redirect the blood flow back to normal before you
rush back to the office. You also want your body temperature to decrease
before you hop into a hot or cold shower; otherwise, you risk fainting. Cooling
down prevents your blood from pooling in one place, such as your legs. When
you suddenly stop exercising, your blood can quickly collect, which can lead
to dizziness, nausea, and fainting. If you’re really out of shape or at high risk
for heart disease, skipping a cooldown can place undue stress on your heart.