1. Warm-Up, Stretch, & Cool-Down
“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” ~Benjamin Franklin
Participating in Power Panther Professionals has hopefully brought the importance of nutrition and physical activity to the forefront of your mind. Most of us are aware that regular, moderate physical activity is an important component of a healthy lifestyle. This presentation focuses on ensuring that physical activity is safe. As with just about anything, there is a risk of injury when being physically active. It is important to consult your physician before beginning an exercise program, especially if you have a condition that may prevent you from being active.
Regardless of whether you are a marathon-runner, a weekend warrior, or a person who is just starting out, a good warm-up, stretch and cool-down are important, injury-preventing parts of physical activity. This presentation will talk about the importance of a warm-up, the benefits of a good stretch, and the muscle-recovery advantages of a cool-down.

2. Why Warm-Up? Prepares your body physically and psychologically
Increases blood flow to your muscles and increases your body temperature.
Achieve optimal performance
Reduce the risk of injury
So why warm-up? There are a number of physical and psychological advantages to warming up before physical activity.
A warm-up prepares your body for the upcoming workout or activity by increasing the blood flow to your body’s muscles and increasing your body’s temperature. This increase in blood flow and temperature helps ensure that your muscles have access to oxygen and nutrients carried by the blood. In addition, the blood also carries away waste products from the muscles… we’ll learn later how a cool-down can help your body do just that.
By increasing the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the muscles, a warm-up supports optimal performance during activity. The increase in body temperature allows muscles to lengthen (stretch) more easily, which helps reduce the risk of injury.

3. How do you Warm-Up? The warm-up should last about five minutes.
Slow walking is a good warm-up for a moderate-paced walk.
Brisk walking is a good
warm-up for more vigorous
activity.
In order to get the most benefits from a warm-up, follow these basic guidelines:
Depending on the activity, your warm-up should last between one and ten minutes… five minutes is a good goal, especially if you’re just starting out, you feel sore from a previous workout, or the weather is chilly. During that time, focus on an activity that will increase both your heart rate (pulse) and your breathing rate.
If you are planning on completing a moderately-paced walk for your workout, your warm-up should be a slower-paced walk.
Brisk walking or a light jog are both good warm-up options if you’re planning something a little more vigorous like a jog, a run, or a game of basketball or soccer as it will increase your heart rate and breathing rate, as well as increase the blood flow to your muscles.

4. Warm-Up Conditions Make sure your warm-up does the following:
Increases heart rate
Increases breathing rate
Elevates body temperature
Utilizes muscles you will use in the upcoming activity
Takes your joints through a full rage of motion needed for the upcoming activity
Your warm-up should meet the following criteria:
Increases heart rate
Increases breathing rate
Elevates body temperature
Utilizes muscles you will use in the upcoming activity
Takes your joints through a full rage of motion needed for the upcoming activity
If you were planning on jogging, what would you want to do for a warm up? (wait for answers from participants)
A brisk walk or a jog at a lighter (slower) pace than your workout would be a good warm-up. Make sure to engage muscles in your legs, but also to move your arms/shoulders… you’ll need them during your jog too!

5. Stretching Light stretching should be done after the warm-up
Deep stretching after the entire workout
Remember to breathe when you stretch!
Benefits of stretching, include:
Improving and maintaining joint range of motion
Helps reduce risk of injury
Helps reduce soreness
Promotes better posture
Improves circulation
Relieves stress
After completing a light warm-up, it’s time to do some stretching. Now you may be thinking that this is a little different than what you’ve heard in the past, and you’re right! Most trainers and coaches in the past recommended stretching first and then completing a warm-up. In recent years however, exercise physiologists have found that muscles stretch and lengthen more easily and more effectively if they’re warmed up first. By doing a warm-up first and stretching second, the muscles will get the maximal benefit from the stretch and significantly reduce the risk of muscular injury during your workout. Some other advantages of stretching include:
Increasing and maintaining the range of motion of joints (how far your joints bend and straighten)
Helps reduce muscle soreness
Promotes better posture
Improves circulation
Relieves stress… (this is a good one to remember anytime, whether you’re sitting at your computer or stuck in traffic!)

6. Warm-Up Stretching
After the warm-up, stretch the muscles that you will be using during your workout.
Each stretch should last seconds.
Going on a Walk?
Concentrate on stretching your…
Quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteals, adductors, hip flexors, calves, and lower back.
After warming up, go through a series of stretches that focus on stretching the muscles that will be used during your workout.
Stretch slowly, DON’T BOUNCE! Hold each stretch between 10 and 30 seconds (you should feel your muscles relax and the stretch should become easier).
Are you going for a walk? There are many muscles involved in that walk! Concentrate on stretching your:
Quadriceps
Hamstrings
Gluteals
Adductors
Hip flexors
Calves
Lower back

7. Workout Remember that your workout should be at a moderate intensity:
The ‘Talk Test’
Your Target Heart Rate Range (between 60% and 85% of your maximal heart rate)
During your workout, remember to exercise at a moderate intensity. Exercising at a moderate intensity is a great way to both burn fat and improve cardiovascular (heart health, lung health, and circulation) health.
If you’re not sure how to work out at a moderate intensity, use the ‘Talk Test’: While exercising, you should be able to talk. If you are too out-of-breath to talk, you’re working too hard; if you can sing it’s time to pick up the pace!
You can also use your Target Heart Rate to determine whether or not you are working at a moderate pace. This is especially helpful if you wear a heart rate monitor during exercise, or if you use a piece of exercise equipment that has heart rate sensors on it (most elliptical machines, stair masters and stationary bikes have sensors on them to calculate your heart rate).
The Physical Activity Bonus Presentation has a worksheet for Calculating Target Heart Rate. You can use this time to have participants calculate their target heart rate.

8. Cool-Down Never skip this step of your workout!
If you abruptly stop an intense activity, you risk:
Increasing your chance of experiencing heart arrhythmias
Hindering the removal of cellular waste from your muscles, increasing the likelihood of muscle soreness
Blood pooling
Becoming light-headed
The cool-down is an important part of any workout.
Abruptly stopping an intense activity can increase the chances of:
Experiencing heart arrhythmias
Experiencing muscle soreness due to the hindering of waste removal from muscles
Blood pooling in extremities which can result in lightheadedness.

9. How do you Cool-Down? Slow the intensity of the activity you are doing
Gradually slow your pace down to a walk
End the cool-down by doing some deep stretching.
Focus on the muscles that you were using during your workout, this will help reduce the incidence of stiffness or soreness later.
In order to cool-down properly, slow the pace of your workout… if you’re running or jogging, begin to run or jog more slowly and then work your way down to a walk… If you’re already walking, slow down from that moderate pace to a slower walking pace. This should be done gradually and then that slower pace should be maintained for 5-10 minutes.
Wrap-up your cool-down with some stretching. The stretching that you do after a workout is especially valuable because your muscles are very warm and pliable, which means that they will stretch more easily and your stretch will be more effective. In addition to the benefits to your flexibility and injury prevention, stretching after a cool-down helps to reduce the incidence of muscle soreness later on.

10. Cool-Down Stretching After the entire workout, stretch the whole body.
Make sure to focus on the muscles that were used during the workout.
Each stretch should last seconds and be repeated.
While it is a good idea to do some stretches for the entire body, you want to make sure to focus on the primary muscles that you’ve used during your workout. For example, after a walk or jog, you want to be sure to stretch your arms, shoulders and back (after all, you’ve used those muscles too!), but your focus should be on the muscles in your legs since they did most of the work during your workout.
When you stretch during your cool-down, you want your stretches to last a little bit longer: between 20 and 30 seconds. You can repeat these stretches up to three times, depending on how intense your workout was, and how tight or stiff your muscles feel. These longer stretches allow your muscles to lengthen and help to remove wastes from your muscle tissues, reducing soreness later.

11. Cool-Down Benefits
Slowly ending your workout gives your body a chance to:
Relax
Decrease your heart rate
Decrease your breathing rate
Reduces potential for muscle soreness
Reduces chance of dizziness or fainting
In addition to the flexibility gains, there are several other benefits to a proper cool-down. By slowly ending your workout, your body has a chance to relax, and bring your heart rate and breathing back down to a normal, resting rate. As mentioned already, a cool-down and stretch reduces the chance of experiencing delayed onset muscle soreness (sometimes called DOMS)… the muscle soreness that comes a day or two after activity. By slowly bringing your body back to normal, you also reduce the chances of feeling dizzy or fainting.

12. Power Panther Professionals School-Wide
Announce to students that teachers will be focusing on increasing their levels of physical activity. Encourage students to “catch” teachers doing something physically active.
Take students on at least a 10-minute walk.
Encourage incorporating a warm-up, stretching, and a cool-down during the walk.
Incorporate physical activity into a lesson plan.
Ask students about their favorite activities including warm-up, stretches, and cool-downs.
Sponsor a school-wide fitness activity like a fitness night or an intramural league.
There are many ways to get everyone involved in Power Panther Professionals during this section. Tell students that teachers are focusing on increasing their levels of physical activity and are learning about safe ways to warm-up, stretch, and cool-down. Encourage the students to “catch” their teachers doing physical activity.
Try to take students on a walk… at least 10-minutes long. Try to incorporate some of the warm-up, stretching and cool-down techniques from this segment.
Work to incorporate physical activity into a lesson plan…remember that it doesn’t have to be a lesson focused on health. Spelling and math-inspired relay races are also great ways to get kids active!
Take a Physical Activity Break like JAM’min Minutes which can be found at
Have a student-centered discussion about physical activity and talk about the importance of a warm-up, stretching, and a cool-down. Many students will be involved in different activities…ask about the kinds of warm-up and stretching that they have to do to get their bodies ready for activity. You may be surprised to find you have a class made up of dancers, martial artists, soccer players, and track stars!
Sponsor a school-wide fitness activity to get kids and adults excited about physical activity.