Warming UP

I wanted to dedicate today's post to one commonly overlooked aspect of training. The warm up is an extremely important aspect of your training and if you're not warming up properly, I"m sorry to say that you are not getting the most out of your workouts. I like to think of warming up as exercise foreplay. LOL! You don't really want to just jump right into your routine because the body is not yet properly prepared.

Consider the warm up as the pace-setter for your exercise routine. A good warm-up is going to ensure that the muscles are awake, the blood is flowing, and the heart is pumping. If you watch any professional athlete, the warm up is one of the biggest and most crucial aspects of their training. You will never see an olympic sprinter just wake up, head to the track, and attempt to sprint at maximum speed. His body will be sluggish and his reactions will be slow.

So why do most people get to the gym and fail to do a proper warm up? Well I guess there are a number of reasons for this, but for you reading this right now, you will have no more excuses. A proper warm up will give you the edge on everyone else. Guaranteed! Think of your body and your muscles like a rubber-band, when a rubber-band is cold it doesn't have much stretch, and less stretch produces less force. Now if you warm the rubber-band up a little bit you will find that it stretches further and snaps back with greater force. Now although I am using a rubber-band as an example, I am not implying that you stretch before you workout. In fact, static stretching, which is stretching a muscle to a point of pain and holding it, can actually inhibit your performance. So NEVER, NEVER, NEVER static stretch before you train, unless static stretching is specific to your sport. I'll get into stretching in my next post, so I'll focus on the warm up for now.

What is a proper warm up?

So the great thing about a warm up, is there are so many different options to get the blood flowing. Make sure that your warm-up involves the whole body and incorporates full body movements. It doesn't take much to get the blood flowing and a proper warm up should not be done to the point of exhaustion. A proper warm up, will get your heart pumping, the blood flowing and you may begin to break a little sweat. The minute you begin to sweat, your body has activated its cooling mechanisms. This means you're warm. keep the sweat going for about a minute and you are ready to go. Your warm up should last anywhere from 5-10 minutes, so it doesn't take too long. Believe me this 5-10 minute session will really make a difference.

What are some examples of a good warm up?

Treadmill Jog
Treadmill Incline walk
elliptical
Jump rope
Body weight squats
push-ups
sit-ups
pull-ups
bear crawls
mountain climbers
burpies
Jumping Jacks

The list goes on....

Literally any full body movement can be used to warm up, and you can mix and match any of these movements to help get the blood flowing.

Why Warm up?

Well think about it this way. You've probably been at work all day sitting at a desk with your body in the same cramped position. Your body is literally stiff and the muscles have no blood flow. The warm up also indirectly stretches the muscles in a safe effective way and prepares you for your routine. Use the warm up to wake your mind and body. Getting the heart pumping will let your body know, "Its time for exercise!"

Warming up will not only improve your overall performance, it was one of the biggest contributing factors to injury prevention. Stiff cold muscles are much more prone, to pulling, tearing, and training. Something as simple as 5 minutes can make a huge difference in your overall health and longevity. Be smart and take the time to do it. 5 minutes can save you weeks or even months of injury recuperation. So basically what I am saying is you are an idiot if you don't warm up! LOL! J/K. Or am I?

But seriously warming up does a lot more for your health than you can imagine. I made leaps and bounds in my physic and in my overall performance when I made the simple change of adding a warm up to my routine. DO it!