What Are The Three Phases of Exercise?
Not to be confused with the three types of exercise, but the three phases, or stages, of exercise are important for your workout to help prevent injury and to maximize the results of your workouts.
1. The warm-up
Your warm-up should consist of some light movements to slowly bring your heart rate up from your resting rate to your active rate. Stretching, or flexibility training, can be used to get started and can be combined with range of motion exercises. These are generally low-impact and you can start out slowly and move faster as you feel your body warming and breathing rate increasing.
A good rule of thumb here is to warm-up and "stretch" the areas of the body you plan to be concentrating on in the main part of your work out. You can also use a low intensity form of your primary work out during your warm-up phase. The idea is not to start your full workout from a cold, or sedentary, condition. You should spend at least 5 minutes performing your warm-up and more time would not be remiss.
