The value of Warm Ups and Cool Downs

A common exercising mistake is the failure to warm up before beginning exercise plus failing to cool down properly afterwards.
Why warming up is important

To be safe, any aerobic exercise program should begin with a warm up period. The main purpose of warming up is to increase your heart rate slightly. This has several benefits:

1) it raises your core body temperature; and
2) it increases the blood (oxygen) flow to your muscles to prepare your body for more vigorous physical activity.

This allows:

3)Your muscles and tendons (which attach your muscles to your bones) to be more flexible for stretching after these mild movement have raised your internal body temperature.
4) Increased flexibility which helps you increase the range of motion of your joints and also may help you avoid injuries such as muscle tears and pulls.

Which muscles should I warm up?

Focus on warming up large muscle groups (i.e. quadriceps, calves, chest, etc...).

For example: In an aerobic class, participants march in place, grapevine, do knee lifts etc for the legs. To warm up the chest and shoulder area, participants do shoulder rolls, arm circles etc.

Runners/joggers could begin their run with a fast walk for 3 to 5 minutes followed by a stretch prior to the actual run itself.

How Long should I warm up?

It takes your body approximately 3 minutes to realise it needs to pump more blood to your muscles. Warm ups should therefore last approximately 5 - 10 minutes and they should incorporate stretching of large muscle groups (such as the quadriceps, calves, hamstrings, hip flexors, shoulders etc)

If you do all this you should avoid injury and allow yourself to keep doing the beneficial exercise programmes.

Tomorrow we will talk about cooling down too!