The Importance of Warming-up and Cooling-down before a Workout

Have you ever looked back on your past workouts and wondered why you could not get that last rep or why the work out did not go that well for you that particular day? Ever have tight muscles or even worse a strain or tear? When looking back did you ever remember feeling lightheaded or dizzy or cramping right after your workout? Or even sore the next day or two?  All of these preventable factors can be from not warming-up or cooling-down before and after your work out. Here are some reasons why this happens and good tips to do to prevent this.

Warming up is one of the best things you can do before your work out to hit peak performance for the body parts being worked on that day. It helps with flexibility and circulation. Warming up dilates blood vessels and brings oxygen to the muscles. This is all needed to have your muscles work properly. It is preparing yourself for your work out. Not only does it help the muscles but it gradually gets your heart rate elevated instead of having it jump up too quickly which could be straining to the heart. This also can prevent injury like muscle strain or tears.

A good warm-up should not take too long and should only last about 5 to 10 minutes. It is recommended to start with a walk or light jog and go into an Active Dynamic Warm Up. An Active Dynamic Warm Up is basically moving stretches. Some basic Active Dynamic Warm Ups can be walking kicks or lunges for legs and arm circles for your upper body. More detailed stretches can be looked up or ask an exercise professional near you for help.

Right after your work out is when the cool-down takes place. The cool down’s goal is to get your body back to where it was before the work out. Lowering your heart rate and cooling down your muscles to normal temperature. This is how you prevent dizziness and muscle cramps. It will also help release the buildup of lactic acid in your muscles, which is one of the reasons for soreness. We want to relax the body here. For cool downs it is recommended just like with the warm-up to do a light walk or jog and after that some static stretching. The cool-down should only take about 5 to 10 minutes as well. After the walk or jog static stretching is encouraged. Static stretching basically are holding stretches where you stay put and elongate the muscle, focusing on one at a time. Once again look up or check with and exercise professional as well for help on good safe stretches. Each muscle stretch should only take about 15 to 30 seconds.

Adding warm-ups and cool-downs to your exercises will greatly increase your body’s performance and get you to your goals even quicker. And most importantly it will prevent injury so you can keep going!