There is always one common problem as to why injuries occur and that is not doing an appropriate warm up. So the burning question is how important is a warm up, how long do we need to do it for and what do we need to do?
Importance
The body is always moving, we constantly use muscles to sit, stand, move and even sleep! When we exercise, we generally raise the heart rate, putting stress on the cardiovascular system and body. If you constantly sit all day long and then decide to go for a run, you have to imagine that first of all your body has been in this position for a long time, so these muscles are already active for this seated position only. Therefore we need to prepare the body for the position you want to exert yourself into.
Joints: we have something called synovial fluid. This fluid is there to ensure a smooth movement of the joint. In exercise the fluid increases around the area to give you the movement you need but this doesn’t happen very quickly. This is where a warm up comes into play. It increases flexibility around the area giving a greater movement for that particular joint so therefore when you go to do the full workout, your joints are ready to go.
Muscles and Tendons: Muscles need to get ready for exercise. When you start to exercise muscles shorten, as they contract. So somehow we need to get a smooth transition from your normal length to the contracted state. If you run without a warm up the muscle has to align into its position very quickly and therefore will be more likely to tear from the pressure you have put it under. With the tendons, they come hand in hand with the muscles. If your muscle is too tight to perform and isn’t warmed up enough it is going to pull and put strain on the tendon which could result in a problem there also.
How to warm up and what to do:
For any sport you will need 10 to 15 mins of a good warm up, this is determined on the sport you are about to engage in. For instance, how intense are you going to work out, how much weight do you intend to lift, how long are you going to exercise for?
For every sport comes a different type of movement, therefore a warm up should be individual to that area. Let’s take a couple of examples and look at what movements each sport does:
- Badminton
Movements are forward, back, lunging, throwing, side, sprinting, jumping and many more.
- Weight Training
Lifting heavy weights on one particular muscle group at a time
- Running
Forwards, sometimes side, sprinting, going uphill, downhill
By looking at these examples we can see how different the sports are, so therefore why would you choose to warm up the same for everything? The warm up has to reflect what is about to happen with your training.
After a warm up you can do pre stretching on each of the areas you have warmed up and also intend to use. These stretches are generally held to approx. 30 secs and just a gentle stretch rather than pushing the stretch as you may well in your post stretch.
Dynamic stretching is something we now add into warm ups, rather than static stretching we are moving into active stretching. I enclose a u tube clip of a few examples which you can add into most workouts that you do. With all of the ones you see aim for 60 secs on each area/leg or more if you need to.
I hope that by reading this you are thinking slightly differently about incorporating a warm up into your workout. You now know the importance and why.
If you need any help with devising a warm up programme for your sport then please get in touch
In the meantime Happy Warm Up!
Sara
