Strickland Fitness

Pre-Workout

The importance of warming up is undeniable. It’s a wonder why so few of us actually warm up before any type of exercise; Maybe it’s not knowing what to do or what to do it for. I will answer both of these maybes.

You should warm up before any exercise session. It does not matter if it is cardio or resistance training.  The two basic parts of a warm up are low intensity movement and active stretching.

Why warm up: To ready the body for maximum performance and prevent injury during and after exercise. The difference between working out cold and working out with a warm body is substantial. Muscles perform better when they are rich with oxygen. This oxygen gets to your muscles via blood. Warming up moves blood throughout your body saturating your muscles with oxygenated blood. Your muscles and body will then be ready for intense activity. Some examples of the first part of your warm up (low intensity movement) are: Biking, jogging, rowing, walking, and stepping. 5-10 minutes of any of these examples is plenty to get the blood flowing to your muscles. This should not be intense as to not tire yourself before your actual workout.

The second part of your warm up should be active stretching. Have you ever seen track athletes hopping down the track raising their knees up and down to and from their chest before a race? This is an example of active stretching. You are putting your body through the motions of the actual exercise you plan to do. This prepares the ligaments and muscles for the force that will be placed on them. Going through full range of motion before resisting the motion (with speed, weight, or force) is crucial in injury prevention. Some examples of active stretching are: walking lunges, side-to-side lunges, arms swings, and trunk rotations.

Your muscles and ligaments are like a rubber band. When warm, they are elastic and flexible. Put the rubber band in the freezer and then try to pull it apart…it snaps. That is what can happen when you exercise without warming up.

Before any workout, do 5-10 minutes of low intensity movement followed by 10 minutes of active stretching. Your workout will be that much better and your chance of injury goes down greatly. You also burn a few extra calories doing it!!

Posted in Fitness tips