The six components of a workout routine help develop the primary elements of physical fitness. Preparatory and finishing components help reduce your risk of injury during primary workout activities. Functional components help you maintain stability, control and mobility in your joints. Primary exercise components boost your metabolism while developing your cardiovascular endurance and muscular fitness.
Warm Up and Cool Down
Warming up helps prevent injury by loosening your joints and muscles. Cooling down is particularly important, because it helps regulate blood flow. MayoClinic.com recommends warming up and cooling down for 10 minutes at the beginning and end of your workout routine. Focus on large muscle group movements, and movements similar to your primary workout exercises.
Aerobic
The aerobic component of a workout routine involves continuous activities that use large muscle groups and increase your heart rate. Walking, jogging, biking, swimming and cycling are examples of aerobic activity. Aerobic activity helps your heart, lungs and circulatory system transport oxygen and nutrients more efficiently throughout your body. MayoClinic.com recommends performing 30 minutes of light aerobic activity five days per week.
Core Conditioning
The core conditioning component of a workout routine targets your abdominal, lower-back and hip muscles. Shoulder-to-hip exercises, including abdominal crunches, target the upper abdominal muscle fibers. Hip-to-shoulder exercises, including leg raises, work your lower abdominal muscle fibers and hip flexors. Back extension exercises, including barbell hyperextensions, work your lower back and hip muscles.
Balance Training
The balance training component of a workout routine helps you maintain and improve balance, which is increasingly important as you age. Basic balance training might involve standing on one leg for progressively longer periods. Dynamic movements that change your center of gravity with equipment such as medicine balls, balance boards and physio balls are other forms of balance training for your workout.
Resistance
The resistance component of a workout routine might last 20 to 30 minutes. Weight training is a common form of resistance exercise. Work each muscle twice per week. Dividing a full-body workout among multiple days helps prevent overuse injury, because muscles require 48 to 72 recovery hours between workouts. Resistance that exhausts your muscles within 12 to 15 repetitions helps builds muscular strength and endurance, and build muscle mass.
Stretching
The stretching component of a workout routine increases blood flow to your muscles. Perform stretching exercises while your muscles are still warm after your primary activities and before cooling down. Hold individual stretches for 30 seconds and target the muscles you worked during your primary activities. Stretch large muscle groups, including your hamstrings, lower back and calves.
References
- MayoClinic.com; Aerobic Exercise: How to Warm Up and Cool Down; February 2011
- MayoClinic.com; Fitness Training -- 5 Elements of a Rounded Routine; September 2009
- National Federation of Professional Trainers: "Fitness Trainer Manual"; Mark P. Kelly et al.; 2008
- T-Nation; Inside the Muscles -- Best Ab Exercises; Bret Contreras; May 2010
- Bodybuilding.com; Three Dimentional Balance Training; Scott Sonnon
- ExRx.net: Barbell Hyperextension
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