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The Warm-Up and the Cool-Down are the most commonly overlooked aspects of a workout. The Warm-Up and Cool-Down do exactly what they sound like: prepare your body for exercise and then for rest. Both a proper warm-up and cool-down should include 5-10 minutes of light cardio and 5-15 minutes of stretching. The warm-up should be hard enough to raise your body temperature, increase your heart rate and rate of breathing, and maybe break a sweat. An exercise novice should not push themselves so that they are out of breath on the warm-up. The warm-up should be followed by 5-10 minutes of mostly Active (moving) Stretches that target each of the major muscle groups of the body. The cool-down is preparing your body for rest. Allow your heart rate to drop and your rate of breathing to slow during the cool-down. After the cool-down, 10-15 minutes of Static (not moving) Stretches to target all of the major muscle groups are recommended.