When we think of exercise essentials, it’s easy to focus on the workouts themselves: strength training, HIIT, jump training, & cardio. But one of the most overlooked, and arguably most important, essentials is the environment we put our bodies in to exercise.
That means how we start, how we finish, and how we recover: the bookends of every workout.
The Warm-Up: Dialing the Number Before You Make the Call
A good warm-up is more than a formality; it’s your body’s way of preparing its communication system. Before we call someone, we have to find their name and dial their number. The warm-up is that dialing process.
By gradually activating muscles, joints, tendons, and even your nervous system, warm-ups:
Reduce injury risk
Prime your body for the specific type of workout you’re about to do
Improve coordination and readiness
Specificity matters.
On a lower-body day? Focus on activating glutes, quads, and hamstrings, not just jogging on the treadmill.
Before HIIT or sprints? Add progressively explosive movements like lunges, split lunges, or short accelerations.
About to do yoga? Work through mobility at different joints.
The key: warm up for what you’re about to do.
The Cool Down: Shifting Gears into Recovery
After a workout, our bodies are in a sympathetic “fight or flight” state. A cool down helps us transition into the parasympathetic “rest and digest” mode, where healing and recovery actually happen.
This transition is especially important if you’re moving straight from a workout into a stressful day. Without it, your nervous system may stay revved up, leaving you feeling depleted rather than energized.
My favorite tool? Breathwork.
A simple 5-second inhale, 5-second exhale, with a short pause at the bottom of the breath.
Or try box breathing: inhale 4s, hold 4s, exhale 4s, hold 4s.
Research shows that breathwork can decrease cortisol levels by up to 20%—a powerful way to nudge your body into recovery mode.
A Quick Note on Cortisol
Cortisol is often misunderstood. It’s not inherently bad—in fact, it naturally peaks 30–45 minutes after waking and gives us energy to start the day. Exercise also spikes cortisol, but those increases should be temporary.
HIIT sometimes gets a bad reputation for “spiking cortisol,” but consistent HIIT training can actually help lower baseline levels over time.
The issue isn’t cortisol itself, but chronic elevation. That’s where recovery, sleep, and cooldowns come in.
If you struggle with recovery, try exercising in the morning when your cortisol naturally peaks.
Recovery: Where the Magic Happens
We often think of progress as happening in the workout itself. But the truth is: exercise is just the stimulus—recovery is where the magic happens.
Recovery isn’t just rest days (though those matter). It’s an active, intentional process:
Sleep: the most important recovery tool.
Low-intensity movement: walking, light cycling, yoga flows.
Breathwork and mindfulness practices.
Complete rest when your body truly needs it.
The Simplified Framework
To keep it simple, here’s what I recommend, no matter the style of workout you enjoy!
Warm-Up: Make it specific to your workout—prep the muscles and systems you’ll actually use.
Cool Down: Use breathwork to shift into parasympathetic mode and help cue your body to lower cortisol.
Recovery: Take it seriously. Prioritize sleep, mix in light activity, and remember that improvements happen after the workout, not during.
When it comes to building your exercise handbag, the “bookends” are what make all the other essentials work. Without them, we’re just piling stress onto the body without giving it the chance to adapt and grow stronger.
In health & happiness,
Kelsy