Warm Up Exercises Before A Workout
Everyone who works out in a gym or does some sort of physical activity needs to take advantage of proper warm up exercises, its critical. Now I know you you might be thinking to yourself, “no I don’t need to” or “you already want me working out and I barely have time for that!”
The majority of people don’t bother to warm up or they simply do it with little effectiveness. So listen up, there are a ton of benefits you get from warming up properly.
Some of the benefits of warming up:
– Gradually raises heart rate
– Increases body temperature within the muscles and
connective tissue which helps prevent injury
– Stimulates joint synovial fluid to help lubricate and
reduce joint friction and irritation which ultimately improves mobility
– Stimulates and activates stabilizing muscles
– Activates weak muscle groups to prepare for proper/safe lifting form
– Improves neuromuscular coordination which can enhance performance
– Can help cement corrected postural imbalances when performed before strength training
How to warm up effectively:
There are a few different things we can do in our warm ups to make them more effective and these include foam Rolling, active stretching, dynamic mobility movements, and a cardio based exercise as a means or warming the body.
People with poor flexibility or significant muscle imbalances will benefit greatly by “waking up” the lengthened weaker muscles and “relaxing” some of the more shortened over developed ones.
Foam rolling can be used to relax over developed or “stiff” muscles prior to working out.
This will also increase recovery rate by allowing blood to flow to the needed muscle fibers.
Dynamic Warm ups are a great way to open up the joints and prepare the neuromuscular system for related movements and postural control.
These exercises will also stimulate the needed stabilizers to prevent injury and enhance performance.
If you have “stiff” (shortened) muscles that effect your form and range of motion in certain exercises then stretching these muscles in your warm up will help. You can try Static Passive Stretching or PNF Stretching.
Shouldn’t I be warming up on the elliptical or treadmill?
If your workout for the day involves resistance training then oddly enough you’re going to be working your muscles through specific ranges of motion. A warm up consisting of these particular movements and muscles is a very direct and functional way of preparing your mind and body for whats to come. If you work at a fast pace during your dynamic mobility and foam rolling you should be able to get you heart rate and body temperature up enough. With that said, adding some form of cardio (bag work, tread mill, etc) is of value especially when training in colder climates where body heat may take some time to warm up.
Zuzana from bodyrock.tv will definitely get you
warmed up for your workout, so to speak.
How long should I warm up for?
I find anywhere from 5-10 minutes of a solid fast paced warm up works well for most of my clients and myself. If you’re concentrating on more corrective exercises before hand this may take longer. Generally speaking you should work up a light sweat or get your max heart rate up above 60-70% (depending on your individual fitness level).
Just do it.
I don’t want to sound like an old Nike ad but if you’re putting in the time to change the way look and feel then at least give yourself an extra 5-10 minutes to warm up before you hit the weights. Long term results only happen if you plan on training for life and so if you want to keep training until you puff into a cloud of dust then you better start warming up and preventing any possible injuries that may occur. This is especially true for older individuals whose recovery time decreases with age (to all those young whipper snappers who think they’ll be invincible forever until they hit ages 25+ when things start to slowly change).
For more info or ideas for warm ups please refer to my exercise database page where you can find stretches and mobility exercises to better your warm up and workout routine.