It’s the same questions that have plagued fitness junkies since the beginning of time: Do I stretch before or after a workout? How important are warm-ups and cool-downs? What even is cardio?! And do I have to do it?
The structure and components of your workout greatly influence the effectiveness, as well as your performance. Poorly designed programs can end up causing more harm than good, and even result in injury. Check out this overview of how to structure a safe, effective workout. As always, be sure to drop a comment or shoot me a message if something in this post sparks your interest that you’d like to see more of!
Let’s get started!
First off, let me get it out there that yes, everyone’s training is different. There is no one magical workout that will work 100% for every person out there, and that is not the goal of this post. This is a general overview of how to structure the basic elements of a workout: cardio, warm-ups, resistance training, cool-downs.
Cardio
Let’s start with everyone’s favorite: Cardio! As much as the word is thrown around, you’d think it would be common knowledge by now, yet I’m always surprised by how many people have been misled about the concept. What is cardio? What counts as cardio? Do I have to do it for every workout?
Simply put, cardio is any prolonged activity that gets our heart pumping [heart=cardiac=cardio]. Well, there’s a lot of activities that get our heart going, so how helpful is that? This is where an understanding of aerobic and anaerobic work comes into play. I could write a whole host of things about aerobic vs anaerobic programming [hmm, future content idea?]. For now, the main take away is that aerobic work is our long, endurance activities, such as running, biking, or swimming, that require efficient oxygen use in the muscles; something lasting longer than 15 minutes. On the other hand, anaerobic [an=without oxygen] is our speed and power work; think boxing, sprinting, HIIT, anything where you’re performing at max power for a short interval, quick recovery, and repeat. The cardio aspect of a workout is typically going to be aerobic: full body movements that increase our heart rate and warm our muscles.
If cardio is your workout, such as going out for a 40 minute jog, then your workout structure is a little simpler: Warm-up, run, cool-down. Here, we’ll look at incorporating cardio as part of the warm-up before moving on to a resistance training workout.
Warm-Up
If there is one thing you take away from this, please, let it be this: Do Your Warm-Up! Warm-ups can arguably be the most important element of a workout; they set the standard and enhance our performance. The warm-up, aptly named, warms our muscles so they perform well under stress. Think of your muscles as an elastic component: when rubber is cold, it’s stiff, brittle, and easily breakable. But, when warm, it becomes much more pliable and able to resist stress and snap back into shape. Your muscles work on the same premise; warm muscles function more efficiently and are at less risk for injury than cold muscles. A warm-up also acts as a neural primer, meaning it gets us in the mindset to work, telling our body to lock it down and grind it out! In short, the importance of warm-ups is:
- Increase speed of contraction/relaxation
- Improve muscle mass strength and power
- Increase oxygen transport [remember aerobic exercise?!]
- Neurological primer
When doing a warm up, it should include both fullbody general movements and sport specific movements. In other terms, cardio and dynamic stretches, respectively.
Cardio for a warm-up can be any general, full body movement, most commonly running, elliptical, or biking. Note: when running, dont’ be afraid to add a warm-up for your warm-warm-up! My runs are significantly better when I take that first 3-5 minutes to walk before starting my run.
Dynamic stretches are how we stretch through movement. Think big movements and range of motion. These stretches are very important in engaging our large muscle groups and enhancing muscular performance and power. These can include inchworms, bear hugs, leg swings, and hip circles. Check out this video for a great variety of different dynamic stretches!
When going through your warm up, aim for at least 10-15 minutes of cardio and 8-12 minutes of dynamic stretching.
Resistance Training
We now move into the bulk of our workout, the resistance training. Resistance training is any program that puts strain on your body; quite literally, your body is resisting a load. This could be bodyweight HIIT, a medicine ball circuit, or heavy lifting.
Some things to keep in mind when resistance training:
- What is your training goal and how are you tailoring your program to achieve that? If you’re looking to build muscle mass and burn fat, lift heavier weight for fewer reps. If you want to increase your muscles’ resistance to fatigue [increase endurance] lift lighter weights for more reps.
- Learn proper technique. Ask an expert, take a class, search online, or even people watch next time you’re at the gym! 100 reps of anyting will do you no good with poor form.
- Don’t forget to breathe! Be sure you’re pulling in full breaths before exhaling; shallow breathing can result in too little oxygen and a build-up of carbon dioxide in your system, which can lead to hyperventilation and those annoying side cramps!
- Never lift alone. Always use the buddy system to spot each other when lifting to minimize injury risk.
Cool-Down
Finally, the blessed cool-down! That period of pure bliss that lets us unwind and savor all the work we’ve just done. The greatest effects of stretching can actually last from 3 minutes to 24 hours after a workout.
We’ve already covered dynamic stretches and their importance in preparing to do work. Now we switch to static stretching to lengthen our muscles and relieve any tightness or soreness. Note: muscle soreness is not a result of lactic acid! It is caused by inflammation and microtrauma in the muscles [sounds scary, but this is actually how your muscles grow bigger and stronger!]
When doing a cool-down, I like to work a top-down approach, meaning I start standing with my arms and shoulders, then move to hips and legs, then walk it out onto the mat for any seated stretches. Static stretches should be held for 15-30 seconds. Hold stretches in a relaxed postion and remember, stretch until discomfort, not pain. Be sure to give some extra love to the muscle groups you just worked!
And there we have, the basic structure of a workout designed to reap the most benefits and decrease injury risk! Like what you read here or want to go more in depth on a particular topic? Be sure to comment below or send a message and let me know your thoughts!
bFit bFearless 