Whether you are going to be taking part in a particular sport, strenuous outdoor activities, or a favorite workout routine, you should always make sure that you are doing warm up exercises. A good warm up helps to bring your heart rate up gradually while also increasing the circulation in your ligaments, tendons, and muscles.
Not only that, but a good warm up will help you to prepare for your activities on a mental level. Exercises to warm up can be compared to warming up your vehicle during cold weather to get the engine up to where it needs to be. This is a way that you can prepare your body for the physical demands to come.
Blood Circulation
You can start out by walking or jogging a bit in place for about five to ten minutes as a way to warm up. This allows your blood circulation to increase in all of your tendons, muscles, and ligaments. The heart rate improves gradually and you can get your muscles going to help prevent injury. Additionally, your tendons and ligaments will be a lot more flexible, which will help to cut back on the chance of tearing.
Mental Preparation
A good warm up is a nice way to prepare you mentally for whatever is coming your way during the game or workout. This can be extremely beneficial if you are going to be cycling a steep include or you will be taking part in hiking or some sort of advanced aerobics class. Because the body can go through a good bit of stress during these kinds of activities, a quality warmup will help you to get even through the toughest routine.
Know The Difference Between Stretching And Exercises For Warming Up
While the terms are often interchangeable depending on the conversation, there are really two different principles involved. While each is important to have a good workout, there are differences between a warm up exercise and a stretch. When you are doing exercises to warm up, you are slowing getting your body ready for what is to come while increasing body temperature.
When you are stretching, you are mainly focusing on the stretching of all of your muscles to be used. The last thing that you want to do is dive right into stretching without bringing up the temperature of your body while jogging in place or walking. This can lead to injury as the muscles will have to be warm in order to stretch properly.
In order to have a quality workout or to do your best during athletic activity, you will want to go through with solid warm up exercises followed by a period of stretching. You can then go through with your athletic activity or workout and have much better performance and less of a chance that you could injure yourself. At the end, be sure that you also go through a cool-down period to help your body to transform back to normal and everything can slow down.