Run Warm Up and Cool Down

Every body is different in its needs, to some degree. Yet, every body, especially as those bodies get older, will appreciate having a good warm up. As a matter of fact, the better the warm up, the better your body will be able to do the hard work of the main training ahead.

Likewise, cool down is important because it allows the body a way to gradually shift out of the exercise mode, allowing tissues, fluids, and temperature to adjust smoothly. Abrupt shifts from exercise to sedentary activities can be surprisingly hard on the body.

We recommend that you keep the same routine for your warm up from practice to practice. This will make it possible for you to sense the starting condition of your body from day to day. If some factor from the day or hours before could affect your performance, you will likely be able to notice signs of this in your body during warm up and compare to the way you have felt on other days, doing the exact same warm up activities.

By keeping your warm up and cool down routine the same, this will reduce the amount of planning and thinking you need to do for each practice.

 

Design Guidelines

Make your warm up 10 to 15 minutes long. Never skip your warm up.

Make your cool down 5 to 10 minutes long. You might skip your cool down if necessary but you might pay a price in a longer recovery.

 

Warm Up Routine

5 to 15 minutes of preparatory exercises.

Then 3 to 5 minutes of brisk walking.

Then 5 to 8 minutes of gentle jogging.

Allow heart rate to increase gradually, with gradually more vigorous activity.

Provoke an increase core temperature, particularly on cool days, so that you feel warm all over your body by the time you begin your main practice activity.

 

Cool Down Routine

5 minutes of gentle jogging.

5 minutes of walking, transition from brisk to gentle.