Something Different For Your Health Fitness Exercise

Be inspired with these great workout tips!

Let's get down to it. A range of health fitness exercise tips which will cover a whole body workout.
You can find something that appeals to you and add it to your existing workout.
Or if this is all new to you then try each exercise and see what's best.
You're an individual..
..so each exercise can be adapted by you for your body.
From time to time you'll see "Avoid Injury" SideNotes. These are my tips from personal experience.

Essential Warm Up Exercises

A good warm up will prepare your body for activity, prevent injury and improve your performance. Look at it as an intro to your exercise. There are 3 main parts of your warm up:

Loosening Up Exercises

This is what I call "oiling the joints". Move your joints steadily, either up and down, side to side or circular movements (backwards and forwards) depending on which joint it is. This will circulate the fluid that will help them move freely.
Which joints for warm up exercises?

Toes, ankles, knees, hips, spine, shoulders, neck, elbows, wrists and fingers.
I recommend that order, but always do shoulders before neck. Repeat each movement 6 to 8 times before moving on to the next joint. You can spend longer on joints that will be specifically used in your exercise.



Avoid Injury SideNote for warm up exercises
Take it easy! Each movement should be smooth. Any jerky or sudden sharp movements at this stage can result in injury. This is NOT stretching. That will come later.

Pulse Raising Exercises

These will gradually raise your heart rate and warm your body. This will prepare your cardiovascular system for activity and warm your muscles up so that it is safe to stretch them.
These warm up exercises should make you breathe faster, but NOT be out of breath. Examples are:
(Less strenuous) Walking, jogging, sidestepping, shuffling, dodging, pivoting, low jumps, skipping (More strenuous).
It's fun to be imaginative with these warm up exercises and adapt them to your sport or workout. For example you could throw and catch a ball whilst jogging. That will also prepare your hand-eye co-ordination, if your activity requires it.
It's a good idea to do a combination of these warm up exercises, going from less strenuous and ending with more strenuous. This will ensure a gradual increase.

Warm Up Stretching

These static (i.e. no bouncing) stretches will gently lengthen your muscles to prepare them for further activity. This will help to prevent pulls, strains and other injuries.
Stretches should only be done when your muscles are warm. Move into the stretch slowly, hold it still for 10 to 12 seconds and move out of the stretch slowly.
Take the stretch to the point where you feel mild discomfort. There should be no feeling of pain. Try and relax whilst stretching, breathe as normal.