Do you warm up prior to exercising or competing in physical activities? If not, why don’t you? Many people may think it’s not important or that it’s a waste of time. So they choose not to warm up.
They may feel they don’t have time, think that it’s boring, or that it’s a chore. This is mostly because they don’t understand its importance or how to do it properly. Regardless of the reasons, the purpose of this article is to stress the importance of warming up prior to exercising and to provide some general information about how to do it properly.
A warmup is any activity, either physical or mental, that helps to prepare you for any physical activity, exercise, or sport. To be more specific, it gradually increases your heart rate, rate of breathing, and your body temperature. It also increases the connections between your body’s nerves, muscles, heart, and lungs. A warmup also prepares your muscles, tendons, and joints for more strenuous physical activity. As such, all of these things together help to improve the efficiency of your body’s movements as well as reduce the risk of injury.
A warmup can be either active or passive. An active warmup, which is done most commonly, is performing light aerobic activities (such as calisthenics, cycling, or brisk walking) and stretching movements appropriate to the physical activity you’re about to perform. On the other hand, a passive warmup involves increasing your body’s temperature with an external source such as a warm bath, a sauna, or the use of a blanket. While a passive warmup has the advantage of warming your body without causing fatigue, it’s generally not as effective as an active warmup because it does not increase the connections between your body’s nerves, muscles, heart, and lungs.
We at the DrAC Preventative Group take warming up prior to exercise and cooling down after exercise quite seriously. We have numerous options available, or we can create customized warmup and cooldown routines specifically for you!
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