The importance of Warming Up Before You Work Out
No one goes to the gym to warm up. You go to the gym to lift, to sweat, to work hard and to make improvements. You don’t go to leisurely use the elliptical while you watch a muted network morning show on the machine’s tiny television. That is not what the gym is about. But the time you spend warming up your body and mind for your real workout is paramount. You need a warm up routine.
Your warm up should be an automatic part of going to the gym. It goes like this: chug pre workout, warm up, crush goals, cool down, enjoy a well deserved dose of protein. That’s it. Every time. Here’s why it’s so important to warm up, what you’ve got to do to make it work for you and why you can’t neglect the cool down.
Why You Absolutely Have To Warm Up
It can be tempting to dive right into your workout before you take the time to adequately warm up your body. The weights are right there! But you can’t skip your warm up. You absolutely have to spend the time to prepare your body for the rigorous activity you’re going to put it through or you’re going to hurt yourself. The weights can wait.
“Warming up, stretching and cooling down correctly are fundamental,” according to BodyBuilding.com, “yet often overlooked parts of any training program.” The primary reason you absolutely need to warm up before you work out is to prevent injury. Getting and keeping your muscles warm will prevent injuries like strains, pulled muscles and damaged joints as well as overuse injuries. According to Sports Medicine Information, warming up allows your body to brace itself to exercise safely and steadily.
Warm up exercises prepare your body for your real workout by gradually increasing your heart rate and circulation. This is going to get blood pumping to your muscles and loosen up your joints. A good stretch is also going to prep your body for physical activity. All of this will help prevent injury and make sure your body is prepared for your workout.
Working through a warm up is going to prepare your mind for exercise as well. Preparing yourself mentally is just as important as warming yourself up physically. “Warming up isn’t just a safety precaution,” BodyBuilding.com says, “it also has positive effects on a bodybuilder because after a warm-up, strength and focus should be peaked. Warming up has many physical and mental benefits.”
The long and short of it is, you need to warm up to have a successful workout. You need to prep your body so you don’t get injured and you need to prep your mind to get the most out of your time in the gym. A warm up routine is going to help you do both of those things.
The Best Warm Ups For Your Workout
The best kind of warm up, according to Sports Medicine Information, is one that includes a combination of cardiovascular exercises, stretching and strength drills. Cardio is going to increase blood circulation, raise your heart rate and literally warm you up by increasing body temperature. A stretching routine warms up the muscles and prepares them for the movements of your workout.
Explosive strength exercises like sprint drills or jumps are going to gently ramp up the intensity of exercise and prepare your body for sudden movements. This is especially important if what you’re warming up for is a sport like basketball or soccer – anything that’s going to be fast-paced and unpredictable. Only venture into this kind of warm up once you’ve completed some cardio and stretching, though. Otherwise you could wind up injured.
Men’s Fitness echoes this information, urging gym-goers to ease into their warm ups and scale up the intensity as they go. “You’ll want to be performing dynamic movements that take your joints through a full range of motion, warm your muscles and prepare your nervous system for the movements of the actual workout to come.”
For instance, Men’s Fitness sets up a potential warmup routine for a squat. If you’re planning on performing a back squat, you’re going to want to start with hip and ankle mobility drills. From there, try some miniband box squats using just your bodyweight to wake up your glutes and get a good feel for form and technique. All this is after you do an initial cardio warm up to get your blood pumping.
To get your heart pumping initially, Greatist suggests low-intensity cardio. Take a jog (outside if you can because treadmills are boring), row slowly on an erg or a rowing machine, bike on a low resistance. Nothing that you’re doing should have you so out of breath that you can’t hold a casual conversation. Follow that with some dynamic stretches to improve your range of motion.
Don’t Neglect The Cool Down
Cooling your body down might not seem as crucial as warming up, but it’s still an important step in your workout routine. It may sound strange, but one of the most important reasons to cool down is to prevent dizziness, according to LiveStrong. Exercise, especially strenuous exercise, can cause the blood vessels in your legs to expand, which invites blood flow to your lower body and away from your brain. Without cooling down, this blood can pool in your legs and feet, which can cause you to become dizzy and faint.
Stretching as part of your cool down, when your muscles are nice and warm and limber, is going to improve your flexibility over time. This extra flexibility can also help you prevent injury. Cooling down is not going to help you prevent muscle soreness, though. Sorry, folks. That’s a rumor unsubstantiated by science, according to LiveStrong.
If this information doesn’t convince you to warm up before you work out, you’ll never listen to reason. If you warm up, you’re less likely to get hurt. If you’re not hurt, you won’t have to skip out on the gym. If you can get to the gym more often, you’re going to crush your goals even faster. It’s as simple as that. Warm up, warm up right and cool down with some stretches and you’ll be golden.
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