Written By: Nirmalya Dutta | Updated : October 19, 2013 1:48 PM IST
Have you ever felt your joints or muscles hurting after lifting weights or doing some cardio? The chances are that you didn't warm up or cool down properly. Many, many exercisers have the tendency to skip the preparatory and winding down phase before heavy duty activities which can lead to a variety of problems ranging from decreased athletic performance to torn muscles in severe cases.
Why you need to warm up
There are a variety of reasons one needs to warm up before starting any sort of physical regime cardio or weight training. It prepares the body physiologically and psychologically for exercise, increases circulation of blood to the various muscles that you're going to work out and also improves flexibility which decreases the chance of being injured. It also prepares your heart for these activities and prevents your blood pressure from rising suddenly. Celebrity fitness trainer and 3-2-1 exercise regime pioneer Ramona Braganza agrees, 'Warming up is vital before a workout. It prepares the body physically, mentally and emotionally, raising the heart rate, working the muscles and waking up the nervous system. Dangers of not warming up include a limited range of motion during an activity which can lead to injury. When muscles are cold they are not limber, pliable and they have a limited range of motion. If you jump right into an exercise that requires you to stretch and contract the muscle belly or tendons and you have not warmed them up then you risk pulling, tearing and straining them.' (How Ramona got Halle Berry and Jessica Alba to lose their post pregnancy weight)
Don't be static before your workout
The old school technique of warming up involved lots of static stretching like toe touches, chest stretches, back stretches, upper back stretches, etc. but recent research has shown that these activities may actually be bad for you and dynamic stretching is the way to go. While static stretching involves motions which help the exerciser reach a point of tension while holding the stretch (basically a stretch and hold), dynamic stretching involves moving body parts while gradually increasing reach and speed of movement with movements like neck rolls, arm circles, trunk twists, leg kicks, etc. Most experts including Ramona suggest using static stretches to cool down after your workout. A University of Nevada study actually found that athletes who did static stretches generated less force from their leg muscles than when hadn't done any stretches at all.
Warming up before cardio
Like we mentioned before, how you should warm up will depend on the type of activity. For example before running, you can do some walking or light jogging for five minutes. You can also do dynamic stretches to reduce muscles stiffness. These are the dynamic stretches Ramona recommends before the cardio phase of her 3-2-1 workout:
Neck Rolls
How to do it: Tilt your head to the left and slowly roll your head around in a full circle. Perform several full circles, alternating direction after each time.
Arm Circles
How to do it: Raise your arms and extend them laterally. Slowly move your arms forward making small circles in the air. You should make about twelve circles, gradually increasing the size with each circle. Do the same exercise in reverse.
Trunk Twists
How to do it: Stand with your feet about shoulder width and hold your hands at about waist height. Slowly twist to the left and the right, for a total of eight to ten full twists. This can be repeated with your hands at shoulder height and above your head to target slightly different sections of your torso.
Knee Raises
How to do it: Begin walking forward slowly and raise your knee as high as you can with each step. The height reached will vary with flexibility, but your knee should always reach above your waist. Take eight to ten steps with each leg.
Leg Kicks
How to do it: For this exercise, it helps to have a tree or something to hold on to. While bracing yourself against something, steadily move your leg in front of you in a kicking motion. Your leg should extend out as far as possible, until it is almost level with your waist. Then move your leg back as far as you can behind you. Go through this kicking motion eight to ten times with each leg.
Along with the aforementioned stretches she also prefers doing some surya namaskars to warm up the spine. She adds, 'Yoga is an excellent way to do dynamic stretches.' (How to do the surya namaskar the right way)
Warming up before weight training
Warming up is even more vital before weight training because suddenly lifting heavy weights can cause serious injuries. Your routine before hitting the weights should definitely include at least 10 minutes of cardio vascular activity which will gradually go up to 85% of your maximum heart rate (MHR*).
*MHR= 220 (your age)
Along with this if you're doing upper body exercises you should do an exercise like push ups whereas if you're going to do lower body, do some bodyweight squats. After that you should ideally, do a warm up set before every specific exercise you intend to do. For example, if you're doing shoulder presses and you intend to do three sets of 15 reps of with 40 pound dumbbells, you should start off by doing a warm up set of 10 reps with 10 pound dumbbells to help your shoulder and biceps muscles to get used to the motion.
Cooling down
Along with warming up, another important phase of your workout which most people tend to ignore is cooling down. It's just as important as warming up and the main aim is to return your body to a state of rest by relaxing the nervous system, lowering the heart rate and preventing blood pooling in the muscles that you've worked out. It also ensures that your brain removes adequate oxygen so that you don't suddenly faint after a strenuous workout and also reduces the lactic acid levels in your blood which increases during exercising. If you've been running, you can cool down by gradually decreasing the pace of the treadmill till it comes to a walking speed. Ramona adds, 'Cooling down is necessary and feels good. Here it's possible to increase range of motion of muscles improving your overall flexibility and the slow pace, deep breathing allow the nervous system to have a chance to recharge.'
So don't forget to warm up and cool down as they're vital aspect of your regime and will enhance the benefits you reap from it.
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