Why Warming Up Before Exercising Is Important
It is already a given that more and more people are into exercising nowadays that is why the importance of warming up should be stressed. Many have repeatedly ignored going through the warm up stage before working out, not knowing the consequences in doing so.
Why warm up? Several changes takes place in the body once physical activity is initiated. A person’s respiratory rate, blood flow, and oxygen and nutrient levels delivered to the cells increases. The rate of increase should be regulated in a steady pace to prepare the body for the physical stress that exercise will demand. If one foregoes this priming procedure, the body will function less efficiently and the workout will produce less quality results. Among the things that warm up exercises could do are preparing the nervous system, loosen the muscles and the joints so that they become less susceptible to damage and increase awareness and alertness of a person. The joints tend to become lubricated during warm-up exercises thus they become less likely to be torn or worn. The time is just enough to give the heart an opportunity to adjust to be able to start pumping the nedded blood and nutrients to the muscles.
This is vital for older people, since they have tissues that are less supple; they have joints with less fluid, and weaker hearts. Sudden exercise can produce heart attacks to older people.
How do you know that you are doing proper warm-up exercises? The most basic definition of what a warm-up exercises is any activity that could start make the heart beat faster. There are a lot of things that a person could do for warm-up exercises such as walking, jogging, and if there are some available cardiovascular equipment, one may also do some rowing or bicycling. Do not go fast immediately, start slowly until your body and your heart beat rate gets momentum. It important to note that the pace should be in accordance to one’s current fitness level, where the activity will leave the person energised and not exhausted.
{After working up a light sweat {suggested time is 3-5 minutes, longer if the person is working out in a cold environment} one should do dynamic stretching.~After breaking into a sweat which would usually take around three to five minutes long if done in regular room temperature and longer in cold areas, the next thing to do is to do dynamic stretching.~After three to five minutes, you start breaking into light sweat {it usually takes a lot longer when the warm up exercise is done in a room with cold temperature}, you can immediately start doing dynamic stretching exercises.} Strecthing is very vital as it helps in making the spine, shoulder and hip area flexible. Make sure that the stretching exercise you choose is in accordance to the kind of exercise program you have. For example, if a person intends to play a certain kind of sport, then he would need to do warm up exercises that are similar to the actions that he is expected to do while playing. If one is about to do martial arts, light sparring can be done in the quarter of the normal speed, or just simply do the movements in slow motion. The major muscles groups should be stretched for a minimum of eight seconds. While stretching, make sure that you constantly keep your feet moving so that that the blood does not get stuck in the legs Remember, one should only do stretching if the muscles are already warmed up. Make sure that keep from bouncing when you are doing your stretching exercise. It leads to a contraction that can result in muscle tear or pull.
For weight-lifters, this is what should be done after the initial warm up. Start lifting 50-60% of the weight you intend to lift and do the same number of repetition of your weight lifting plan. For the second set, the weight will be increased to 80%, then eventually to 90%, decreasing to 2-3 repetitions. Afterwards, rest for about 30 seconds, then repeat the steps. After this warm up, one can now proceed to the heavy lifting for the day. With a good preliminary warm up exercise, the actual exercise can be much easier to accomplish.
Cooling down after the whole exercise is also as important as warming up. Once a person stops suddenly after a very demanding activity, the blood gathers up in the muscles and this would block the oxygen from flowing freely. If this happens, the person becomes more prone to developing heart attack. The two, cooling down and warming up, are both important.
It is good for one’s health to do regular exercises. Everyone is encouraged to pump it up, just remember to remember all the necessary precautions not only to maximize the workout, but also to stay safe and healthy.
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