Warm UP

An often neglected, but very important part of a workout is the warm up. A warm up prepares your heart, lungs, muscles, bones, and joints for exercise. It also prepares you mentally for what you are about to do. Starting out with vigorous intensity exercise when your muscles are still cold can set you up for injury.

Tips for warming up:

* Low intensity cardio is a good way to increase the temperature of the body and the muscles
* Start slowly and progress to harder or faster exercise over a 5-8 minute period of time.
* During a warm up, your heart rate should be 40-60% of your max (max HR is about 220-age).
* Some light stretching can be done towards the END of your warm up. Save any deep stretching for the end of your workout

Exercise Recommendations

Are you getting enough exercise? The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) provides a minimum weekly exercise recommendation. While more is ideal, strive to get at least the recommended time.

• Children & Teens: 1 hour of moderate to vigorous activity daily
• Adults: 2 ½ hours of moderate to vigorous activity per week

For more specific guidelines, go to http://www.health.gov/paguidelines/factsheetprof.aspx

Starting an Exercise Program

When beginning an exercise program, one mistake many people make is over doing it. You don’t want to do too much too fast. This can put extra stress on the muscular, skeletal, and cardiorespiratory systems. Soreness from an overly vigorous workout may actually deter you from exercising for a few days after.

Although you may be motivated to go full speed, it is important to start gradually and build up to higher intensity and longer periods of exercise over time.

If you have been previously inactive, you may want to start with just 15-30 minutes of light to moderate activity daily activity. Slowly increase your time and intensity until you can perform 30-60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise.

Online PE?

Carone Fitness is a curriculum development company. We offer online health and PE courses for grades 6-12. "Online PE?" you might be thinking. Yes, it's true! We realize that it may sound like an oxymoron, but it is not just a virtual workout!

Taking PE online is a good alternative for many students, and actually provides some great benefits. Students can view lessons that provide health and fitness information, participate in online class discussions about health & fitness topics, assess their own levels of fitness, design their own exercise programs, and keep strict logs of their workouts.

Here are some of the benefits:

• Students focus on their OWN level of fitness and try to improve themselves. They are not comparing themselves or being compared to others. It is truly personalized fitness!
• Students can choose physical activities they enjoy! By doing something they enjoy, they are more likely to stick with their exercise program long term.
• Students must create their own workout schedules--figuring when, where, and how they are going to exercise. This sets them up for the "real world" where they also have to figure out how to incorporate health and fitness around work, family, and other activities.
• Students are learning the principles and guidelines behind fitness, not just the rules of a game; thus empowering them with the knowledge they need to maintain a healthy lifestyle long after class is over!

For more information about Carone Fitness or online PE, visit our website at http://www.caronefitness.com/or contact us at information@caronefitness.com.