***This content comes from the Joint Pain Programme Journal by Nuffield Health. As a Rehab Specialist running this program, I’m excited to share these helpful insights with you all.

Start with a warm-up

It is important to ease yourself gently into any type of physical activity. This allows time for a gradual increase in your heart rate and blood pressure in preparation for being more active.

It is recommended that the first 10-15 minutes of any activity should be light, gradually increasing the intensity until you feel slightly warmer and start to become aware of your breathing.

• Raise: Begin by raising your heart rate, increasing circulation, core temperature, and muscular elasticity.

• Activate: Engage your muscles, preparing for the main activity with prehab movements linked to the session.

• Mobilise: Incorporate range of motion-based exercises or stretches to improve the mobility of your joints.

• Practise: Incorporate movements to mimic what is to come within the session, practicing movement.

The beneffts of warming up:

• Increased body temperature

• Improved ROM

• Gradual increase of intensity

• Psychological preparation

• Practice of movement skills

• Injury prevention.

Finish with a cool down

A cool down is something that you will do after a session has finished, allowing your body to return to a resting state by reducing heart rate and calming the nervous system.

This will help to reduce muscular soreness, chance of injury, and blood pooling. Cooling down should include both a progressive reduction in intensity and gentle stretching.

Exercising – things to think about:

• Don’t exercise after a large meal – wait at least 30 minutes after eating before you exercise. Keep yourself hydrated throughout.

• Avoid exercising outside in extreme weather (hot or cold). In warm weather, try to be active during the cooler parts of the day.

• If you feel unwell in any way when exercising, stop. Get medical advice if the symptoms don’t go away.

• If you are diabetic, you may have been advised to monitor your blood sugar. Exercising can affect your blood sugar levels, so you may need to monitor them more closely before and after.

Your Space to Reflect

📍 Starting Point

- What does your current exercise preparation routine look like?

- How do you decide if you're ready to exercise on any given day?

🤔 Looking Deeper

- What preparation steps make you feel most confident about exercising?

- When have you noticed preparation making a difference to your session?

💡 Exploring Possibilities

- Which preparation strategies could you add to your routine?

- What would an ideal pre-exercise checklist look like for you?

🔄 New Perspectives

- How might viewing preparation as part of the exercise itself change things?

- What would being "exercise-ready" mean to you?