A is for aerobic workout: You'll need to warm up before you launch into our 10-week workout program, whether you're walking, running, biking, or taking a class at the gym. The exercises you'll learn in this section, designed to get your muscles warm and limber, are:
Here's what you need to know before you begin your workout program, adapted from Fitness After 40 by Vonda Wright, M.D.
Just as your entire body can put on fat and become weak from disuse, so can your heart. If you don't challenge it, your heart literally becomes surrounded by a flabby envelope of fat and lub-dubs along like a floppy sac. Aerobic means "with oxygen," and aerobic exercise is exercise that involves oxygen. The more fit your body is and the more efficient your heart becomes, the more work can be done with each given amount of oxygen. It's like a car: The more efficient your engine, the better your miles per gallon.
To begin your own exercise program, choose the aerobic activity you are going to start doing, such as walking, hiking, running, jogging, aerobic dance, rope skipping, stairs, skating, cycling, skiing, aerobics classes, rowing, swimming, or endurance sports. When you are getting started, it is important to keep it simple. Do not make an elaborate plan with multilevel goals. Go for a walk, run, swim, or row—anything that is logistically practical for you. Remember that just making the decision to exercise does not erase years of sedentary buildup, so don't try to make it up all at once. Many people start with walking first. It is simple and logistically practical since you can just open the front door and start. And let's face it, there is no new skill to learn.
You must warm up before taking off on your exercise adventure. This can take the form of an easy walk or a slow jog before a run or a few slow pool laps before you turn up the speed. Dynamic warm-ups—warm-ups where you are moving and stretching instead of just standing in one place—are fun and get the heart pumping and the muscles filled with blood. The following warm-up exercises can easily be performed before any kind of exercise.
Toe and Heel Walks
Walking on your toes gives your calves, in the back of your lower legs, a good warm-up. Walking on your heels warms up the front portion of your legs as well as warming up your ankles. If your legs start to ache while doing either of these walks, you should stop.
1. Walk on your toes with your toes pointed straight ahead for about 20 meters, getting as high up on your toes as you possibly can. Your legs should be relatively straight as you do this, and you should—at least initially—take fairly small steps.
2. Switch to walking on your toes for 20 meters. Your feet should be rotated out.
3. Do the same, with your toes pointed in, for 20 meters.
4. Repeat this while walking on your heels.
Skip
Did you think skipping was just for kids? It's not, and it's a good way for you to warm up.
1. Skip for 20 meters, landing in the mid-foot area with each contact with the ground and with toes pointed straight ahead.
2. Try skipping by flexing your knees up high and taking longer than normal strides.
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