Why You Shouldn’t Skip Warm Up Exercises

If you are a little behind schedule, and impatient to get on with your morning run or gym session, it can be tempting to miss out warm-up exercises and jump straight in. However, sports therapists always recommend carrying out a proper warm-up routine. Here are some of the reasons why it is important to prepare the body for intensive activity.

Warming up before taking exercise prepares you both mentally and physically for activity, reducing the risk of injury, and enabling you to perform at your best. It gently increases your heart rate and blood flow, which allows more oxygen to reach your muscles. The increased blood flow will raise your body temperature, hence the term ‘warm-up.’

As you move through a range of low-key exercises, you will also be activating the connections between your nerve and muscle, which will make you more flexible and less prone to missteps once you start more strenuous movements.

 

How to warm up

The NHS recommends that dynamic stretching is more effective than static stretching for warm-up exercises. But what exactly is the difference? Dynamic stretching simply means mimicking the activity you are going to do during your main workout with continuous movements. Concentrate on one muscle group at a time with 10-12 repetitions.

The purpose is to increase the blood flow to the muscles, which reduces stiffness and enhances power and performance. Static stretching involves moving a joint as far as it will go, and holding for a minute or two. There is nothing wrong with this of course; it will help to improve flexibility, but it is best to do it as part of a cool down session.

Examples of dynamic stretching include walking lunges, jogging on the spot, arm swinging from side to side across the torso, and hip circles.

 

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