Following the Steps: Safety

Over the last two days, I've talked about following the steps that will allow us, the unmotivated and over 40, to find the time for fitness and to get healthy.

It won't do you any  good to succeed at that if, in the process, you injure yourself.

Warm-Up

Warm-up is important.

Warm-up is light, easy, repetitive exercise for long enough to get your blood flowing a little bit. Five minutes is usually enough.

Stretching

Warm-up is not stretching. Don't stretch cold muscles. You could injure them, and stretching before exercise provides no benefit in injury-prevention or in performance.

Stretching after exercise or in a stretching session separate from exercise will make your muscles more flexible and supple. In the long run, that will prevent injury.

Stretching is a good thing. If you watch TV or movies, that's an excellent time to stretch ... unless you're actually in the theater.

Smart Safety

I mentioned that day before yesterday I found some exercises from a Starbucks wi-fi ad.

One of them was not very exciting, but it was a pretty good exercise. It was just a jumping jack with a squat thrown in while your legs are out and your arms are up.

I wondered how that would work on a person's knees, and I found out on mine by the 2nd or 3rd jump. I started feeling a pain on the inside of my knee. I tried a couple more jumps and squats, and the pain was still there.

When I was younger, and stupid, I might well have made the effort to do the exercise differently or work through it. The pain wasn't great.

This time, I simply dropped the exercise and found a different one.

I recommend you do the same. Leave the exercising through pain to professional athletes with well-trained coaches who know what's safe. (I'd never trust the average high school coach to know what's safe.)