It doesn’t matter if you are a member of a sports team or performing strenuous activities or about to do your daily work-out routine, it is essential that before you start, you do warm-up exercises. You need to gradually bring up your heart rate while, at the same time, increasing the blood circulation in your mucles and tendons and ligaments. A good warm-up will do this for you.
Besides getting your body prepared for your upcoming physical activity, adequate warm-ups will put your mind in the proper place to get the most benefit. Your body needs to be prepared for the activity to come so that it will perform at its best.
Blood Circulation
An easy and effective way to warm-up is to walk or jog in place. Doing this for five to ten minutes will get your blood circulating through your ligaments and tendons and muscles. Walking or jogging slowly brings your heart rate up while getting your muscles moving easily so tht you do not get injured. You will also gain flexibility in your tendons and ligaments to help avoid tearing when you move on to strenuous exercise.
Mental Preparation
While you are warming-up your body, you are also preparing your mind for the coming game or work-out. In particular, if you will be engaging in an extremely competitive game or challenging exercise program, it is very helpful to have ‘warmed-up’ your mind as well as your body. The demands on your body can be very intense and having a good physical and mental warm-up can help you push through when it gets tough.
Know The Difference Between Stretching And Exercises For Warming Up
Stretching and warming-up are really not the same thing although they are frequently used interchangeably. The principles involved are very different. Warm-up exercises are designed to prepare your body for coming, more intense activity and also to slowly increase your body temperature. When you are stretching, your focus is on stretching out the muscles that will be used. It is important to not begin stretching those muscles before you bring your body temperature. That is why if you walk or jog in place first, you will properly prepare your body for stretching and lower the risk of injuring your muscles as is likely if you stretch before warming them up.
You want to play your best or get the most out of your work-out. For that to happen, you must first get your body warmed up. Then stretch your muscles. After that, your body will be better prepared to perform well in your game or benefit more from you work-out routine. Of course the other benefit will be to help avoid injuring yourself.
Remember, following your work-out or game you should also go through a cool-down routine. You need to slow your body back down to its normal pace and not just stop playing your game hard or working-out intensely. A good example of a cool down routine would be to exercise at a low intensity for about 3 to 5 minutes while breathing deeply to bring you heart rate down to normal. Spend 5 minutes stretching the muscles that you worked out. Do about 3 to 5 stretches for those muscles and hold the stretches for approximately 20 to 30 seconds.
Following the proper warm-up and cool-down procedures will help guarantee that you get the most benefit from your exercise activity and avoid injury in the process.
