Warming-up And Cooling-down

One of the most common mistakes made by beginners is that they don’t feel the need to warm-up or cool-down. Many are under the impression that because they aren’t lifting the huge weights, they don’t need to prepare their body accordingly.

Well, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Another common excuse behind the lack of a warm-up is a lack of time. In response to this, let’s say that if you don’t have enough time for a warm-up, you don’t have enough time for your workout full stop. In other words, the warm-up is just as important.

Why is a warm-up important?

We’ve just been telling you about why, under no circumstances, you should skip a warm-up. But why exactly is this the case?

The big reason that most of you are probably familiar with relates to injuries. Those people who warm-up are much less likely to succumb to injuries following their session.

This is because the joints and muscles have been prepared for a greater range of movement, meaning that they are far less likely to encounter problems during the session itself. Additionally, these very same joints will be lubricated which also helps from an injury prevention perspective.

Don’t just think of a warm-up as something that is solely done for injury prevention reasons though. It’s also something that can help your performance, and this is something that you should perhaps focus on in a bid to make sure that you actually carry out this part of your workout every time you turn up to the gym.

Firstly, there’s the mental edge. It has been found that those people who warm up are psychologically “pumped” for the workout ahead, which can prompt better results.

From a physiological perspective, there are several benefits though. One is that your blood’s temperature will be increased, which theoretically means you can work out for longer and at a higher intensity.

In a similar vein, more blood will be flowing to your muscles, which prepares them for exercise and also gives you more oxygen so you are less likely to get out of breath.

What should form your warm-up?

The game of a warm-up is in the name – it’s designed to warm up your muscles. As such, the exercises that form part of this warm-up need to be able to achieve this.

Of course, whilst preparing your muscles in this way, it’s also important to remember that this isn’t your main workout. What we are trying to say is that don’t overexert yourself with the warm-up. It’s not designed to tire you out before you get into the meat of the workout.

Now that we have got the fine print out of the way, what are some of the best exercises you can include in the typical warm-up?

Rather than flesh out a list, let’s give some general guidance. The reason for this is that a warm-up will vary enormously for people. Some of you won’t have any equipment, and will need to rely on your own body. At the same time, some of you won’t be able to achieve some of the exercises due to a lack of mobility.

The best types of warm-up exercises are ones of the dynamic variety. This means turning to powerful exercises such as bodyweight squats, incline push-ups, high knees, hip extensions and bodyweight lunges. All of these will warm up your muscles accordingly in preparation for the main session.

Why is a cool-down important?

Now we’ve talked about warming up, let’s focus on the cool-down at the end of the session. This is again something that a lot of people opt to skip, even though the benefits are aplenty.

One of the most well-known benefits revolves around lactic acid. The cool-down period allows the body to flush away lactic acid, and this is absolutely crucial from a recovery perspective.

If this remains in your system, it sits around your muscles and is one of the reasons that they are sore the next morning. In other words, a cool-down can mean you can hit the gym more frequently without the dreaded aching muscles.

The other benefit about cooling down is that it just allows your body to return to “normality”. Suffice to say, when you are hard at it during exercise, your body is somewhat out of sorts. It is stressed and in a bid to relieve it from this, a cool-down is essential. Your blood’s temperature will drop back, while blood will also start to flow back to your head. If you have ever felt light-headed after a workout, a cool-down can assist with this.

What should form your cool-down?

A cool-down is a little simpler than a warm-up and probably shouldn’t last any more than five or ten minutes.

This time, it’s not about dynamic exercises, but slower movements in a bid to bring you back down following your intense workout.

This means that stretching is in order. Stretching should focus on your entire body, but at least the muscle groups that have been worked.

As well as this, a couple of minutes of cardio can help bring your heart rate back down as well. When we talk about cardio, a slight jog or walk is more than enough at this stage of your workout.