Warm Up Before Exercising

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Skipping the warm up may save time, but it is not the best plan to stay safe. It’s tempting to go straight for the workout and skip the warm up, especially when we are pressed for time. And while it is logical to go as hard as you can for as long as you can, this is not a good or healthy way to treat your body.

Warming up does exactly what it sounds like, it warms your body up. A proper warm up will increase muscle flexibility which results in you being able to stretch farther and decreasing the chance of overextending during your regular workout. It increases blood flow, slowly raises your metabolism, and raises the temperature of your muscles. This ensures that they are prepared and ready for a hard workout. Your performance during the actual workout is improved when your muscles are ready to go. This means you are getting the most from your workout because your body is doing more and functioning more efficiently, which can also help you beat the competition!

A good warm up is usually best done by doing the activity you are planning on doing, only at a slower and slower pace. For example, if you plan to run, go at half speed for the first 5 minutes, then increase your speed to 3/4 for another 5 minutes, then allow yourself to work up to full speed. If you are playing a sport that you can’t “play slowly” for a few minutes, try doing a light workout with another activity. You can jog a few laps around the soccer field or basketball court and run drills slowly before a game or team practice. This will give your muscles some preparation for the coming activity.

We used to be told to stretch before each exercising session to keep ourselves more flexible and injury free. When our muscles are more stretched out, we are less likely to overextend and therefore injure them. While that theory is correct, we are generally taught to do static stretches which actually does very little before a workout. You should try to include dynamic stretches which involve movement and using momentum to stretch without going beyond your normal range of motion. Normal static stretches, like what you do in gym class, are great but should be done on a daily basis, not just when you work out.

You should be sure to add a cool down to your work out as well as a warm up. Just do the opposite of your warm up by slowly bringing yourself back down from extreme activity levels slowly. You can best accomplish this by performing your same activity at a slower pace, as you did with your warm up. Stretching exercises should be included in your cool down as well.

You may feel that you just don’t have the time to bother with a warm up, but if you do your hard workout a little less, and warm up a bit more it can actually give you more time to work out in the long run. A few minutes of warming up are a lot less inconvenient than having to skip workouts altogether because of injuries. A good, productive warm up is ALWAYS a good idea.

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