Before taking on any amount of strenuous exercise, a period of warming up must be completed. This is because your body is essentially cold when you begin your routine and so you must warm up the joints and muscles to get the best results. Failure to do this may lead to strains and pains after you complete your exercises. Just as you must warm up the body before you exercise, it is also wise to 'wind down' at the end by performing a few of the warm-up exercises again. The warm-up process is split into three groups:
Cardiovascular
These exercises are meant to stimulate many parts of the body at once and
are ideal for warming up all the body ready for your workout. Good cardio
exercises will get your arms, legs and whole body moving and include: tennis,
boxing, soccer, jogging, swimming, skiing, basketball, volleyball and any other
full body sport. Cardio also includes stationary exercises such as rowing,
skipping and cycling on full body exercises bikes. Cardiovascular exercises
can be performed a few hours before you intend to train simply to get your
body loosened up and relaxed for the job.
Warm-up Exercises
Included in the exercise section are a number of Warm Up exercises.
It is important to choose exercises which will warm up the parts of the
body you intend to workout, for example, you may want to warm up the
chest and arms if you intend to train the biceps - but maybe not the legs.
Select 5 - 8 types of warm-up exercise and perform them as described in the warm-up exercises section. Most of these will involve stretching the body in a particular way in order to loosen up the muscles fibers. When stretching, it is important not to 'bounce' as this will cause far more damage to the body. The 'bounce' is when you stretch a part of the body to its limit, contract a little and stretch again. This repeated motion is bouncing. The way to successfully undertake the exercises is to hold the body part in the full stretched position for a few seconds as hard as you can. This will pull the muscle fibers and get them ready for the strain of serious exercising.
Complete each warm-up exercise at least 10 times per set before moving onto the next one. At the end of the warm-up you should feel ready to begin as your body will now be more active than when you started. You may also break out in a light sweat - which means your body is getting rid of some of its excess water. This is a good sign as it means your skin is in good perspiration condition but you must be careful in a cool atmosphere as your sweat may get cold and cool down your body.
At the end of the warm-up, catch your breath and rest for a few minutes until you are ready to go. This is best done sitting and leaning against something - never lying down or performing other activity. Your heart rate and breathing should be fairly normal at the end of the rest period but you must take care not to get old and a warm towel or blanket will prevent you from cooling off or getting a chill.
Stretching
Now you have warmed up your body ready for the punishment ahead, it is time
to look at warming up the individual muscles of the body. This can be done
through stretching and is usually done 5 minutes before you intend to start
your workout. Stretch the whole of the body if you can to make sure everything
becomes loose and relaxed. Concentrate particularly on the parts of the body you
wish to build up the most, for example if you intend to work on the biceps,
stretch your biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest and even the neck to make sure
the upper body is in its best shape. Stretching these individual parts of the body
can also be done between sets to get yourself ready for the next exercise.
At the end of your training sessions, pick a number of warm-up exercises to
end on and give yourself time to stretch all the parts of the body again. This
will counteract any strains and soreness effects you may feel later on as well
as helping to reduce the heart rate and promote general relaxation.
