The Benefits of Warming Up!
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Posted: Monday, November 28, 2011
by Samantha Mendoza
Lifetime Fitness Nutrition
If you're about to exercise, you'll need to warm up. Maybe you've tried before to work out without heating up and didn't get injured luckily, but warming up is, no matter the type of exercise you want to perform, a truly indispensable activity, and you're about to explore the benefits!
The definition of heating up
Refers to the group of exercises designed and used to prepare the body for a certain physical activity.
Wouldn't you have a strategy to conquer on any activity? For example, to be able to invite a girl you like to see a movie or make notice that you like a certain person. Well, just like that, you need to have a strategy for preparing your body for the workout.
The exercises must be well adapted according to:
• Gender
• Age
• Stage of development of the person
• Type of activity
• Physical condition
• Climate conditions
Various components and systems of the body are involved in the activity of warming up, such as: cardiovascular, mechanisms for thermal regulation, gas exchange, muscle and joint movement, and the action of the nervous system.
The benefits of heating up
The wave of benefits include:
• Prevention of injuries.
• Helps to relax mentally and physically prepares muscles, joints, tendons, for the work.
• Allows to develop flexibility.
• Starts the production of optimum oxygenation.
• Helps to reach and stabilize the cardiac frequency.
• Helps to enhance resistance and helps to achieve recovery easier.
• Aids and stabilizes thermoregulation.
• Induces veins and lymph to work appropiately.
• Starts the process of detox of substances stock in muscles and joints.
• It increases the motor function and stimulates the peripheral nervous system.
• Begins joint lubrication which prevents joints from suffering out a higher friction.
• Helps to maintain equilibrium.
• Reduces energy consumption and improves the quality of physical performance.
What every warming up strategy must include
Exercises need to be done in a certain order and will be better if they include all parts of the body and not just a certain group of muscles. Time must be controlled as well according to the activity to be performed.
The recommended order of exercises is as follows:
1) Trot.
2) Stretch.
3) Movements to each side.
4) Stretching.
5) Extending.
6) Torsions.
7) Circles.
Each exercise must respect the "natural way" of the specific body parts in use. For example: Handwrists circles are made to the left and the right.
Then, the exercises must include:
1) Exercises for joints (knee, ankles, hip).
2) Exercises for shoulders, arms and wrists.
3) Exercises for upper leg and lower leg.
4) If needed, exercises for the neck.
You'll find toning exercises for 6 minutes/day in the page.
After warming up, start this simple 14 days toning routine
So, now you know how important and beneficial is to warm up your body before any physical activity. Search then ways to stay motivated to this pre-training and believe your hard work is going to pay back.
How to feel motivated towards physical activity
Other workout programs for toning your body
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Wow Samantha, i didn't know that there are so many benefits of warming up, i just thought it is to prevent injuries... Thank you for sharing.HyunSoung, thanks for reading, I know you'll give it a thought now when beginning to exercise. Have a nice day! And thanks for joining as a fan.
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