Whenever you begin, or restart, an exercise program there are simple rules to follow.

Jeff, I do not want you to crash on your spin bike and suffer a fractured pelvis like I did on my road bike. So however unlikely that may be - do as I say, not as I did. I do not recommend you start right back with sixty minutes of accumulated, total exercise your first day or week for that matter. Ease back into it and follow some of the guidelines below (and more to follow).

After getting physician approval - which you've already done - you are ready to ease into regular workouts. Some important things to remember:

• Always warm up before starting the training segment of the workout.
  1. Even for bouts ten minutes in length - you still need a couple of minutes at a lower intensity, as the name implies, to warm up you muscles, joints, cardiovascular, and other systems of your body before more intense/stressful exercise.
  2. A proper warm up helps to prevent injuries, promote optimal function, and make the workout easier and more productive.
  3. A proper warm up reduces the risk of CV death due to sudden strenuous exercise - working out, too hard too fast, before your body is ready.
• While three, ten-minute blocks of aerobic exercise are a great starting point for improving health...in order to improve your cardiovascular fitness, a goal of 20 to 60 minutes of continuous exercise is optimal for the training segment of your workout.
  1. In regards to your diabetes, I will write an entire post on a study by Evans et al., which was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, which found a 29 percent improvement of insulin action in elderly diabetics who performed 1 hour of aerobic exercise two to three times per week.
  2. While accumulating a total of thirty minutes of low-moderate intensity exercise is the current recommendation for maintaining your health, longer bouts are necessary to improve your fitness.
  3. Start with short, low-intensity, repeated bouts and increase your volume (frequency and time), over a month or longer, by about 10 percent per week up to sixty minutes. At which point you can begin to increase your intensity.
• Follow each training segment with a cool down segment - which is performed at a progressively lower intensity from that of the training segment - to aid in recovery allowing you to gain the most from your workout.
  1. A cool down aids in the removal of metabolic waste products and provides your muscles with important nutrients for repair and adaptation.
  2. A cool down helps return your body to its resting state and avoids placing additional stress on your body systems.
  3. It is during the cool down, after your body begins to ease down, that you should include some stretching exercise to improve your flexibility.

 And remember some of the things I taught you long ago -

• Exercise is a stress: you don't gain fitness while you are working out. Only after the imposed stress during recovery.
• Get adequate rest and nutrition: since exercise is a stress, now more than ever, you need adequate rest, sleep, and nutrition to benefit from your workouts.
• Enjoy: if you aren't enjoying your chosen forms of exercise - which I have no doubt you will - you won't keep at it and reap the rewards.

 I'll be sending more tips along your way. In the mean time enjoy the view from your new spin bike!