Preparing yourself for workout

When I say “Preparing”, I don’t mean just the mental preparation to start the workout routine. It is to do with warming up your body and preparing it for exercise. Warming up and cooling down is as important as doing the exercise. So, what happens during the warm-up and cool-down sessions and why is it so important?

Why Warm-up

The most important reason why warm-ups are done is to improve your performance and to reduce the risk of injury. Warm-up exercises increase the blood flow and oxygen to the muscles and also increase the temperature of muscles. The muscles tend to loosen up and respond better to the challenges that your body will undergo during the workout. Sometimes, we complain about getting a muscle catch or a sprain during workouts. While it might also be due to the wrong position, most of the time, it is due to the reason that the body didn’t warm-up well.

The best way to warm-up

Ideally, warm-ups can be 10-15 mins long, but higher the intensity of the workout, longer the warm-up duration. We should also bear in mind to do the warm-up right before exercise. You lose the benefits of warm-up after 30 minutes of inactivity. The warm-up sessions should begin with simple dynamic stretches to activate the motion at joints and include a pulse raiser, which gradually increases the heart rate, supplies oxygen and circulates blood to the muscles.

Why Cool-down

Most of us often overlook the benefits of cooling down. It is, in fact, a little more important than warming up. The body is in the most active stage during workout with an increased heart rate.  Immediately stopping the exercise will result in an excessive drop in blood pressure or cause blood pooling – a condition where blood gathers in the lower limb and the blood doesn’t return to the heart effectively. We sometimes feel dizzy after we stop running or stop an intense workout, and this is the reason behind it. We need to gradually slow down the pace in the same way we increased it during warm-up.

A good cool-down session will restore the muscles to the condition they were in before the start of the exercise and also reduce the risk of muscle soreness.

The best way to cool-down

Spend the same amount of time you used for warm-ups. Begin the cool down with the less intense version of the exercise. For example, if you are running, start cooling down by slow jogging, bring it to brisk walking and finally walking. Then, transition to static stretching. Cool-down sessions are the best way to incorporate flexibility. The muscles are warm and it is the best time to stretch them. Focus on all the muscle groups that were involved in exercising and stretch them for a minimum of 20 secs each.

Keep in mind that stretch exercises must be done when the muscles are warm. Stretching a cold muscle will cause injury. Also, don’t stretch too much to hurt yourself. Go easily, breathe and relax your body as you stretch.

Here is the video to KellyKinetix mobility class which details a few simple dynamic stretches: https://youtu.be/bkzoFVjZIUs