Warmups are key to a good workout
One of the most important keys to a successful workout is a good warm-up. People often skip or cut their warm-up short, especially if they are in a hurry. However, here are some reasons why warmups are key to a good workout and why you need to make sure you plan it into your activities.
First of all, a proper warm-up will help reduce the risk of injury. During the warm-up there is increased blood flow to the muscles. This increased blood flow increases the temperature of the muscle along with its elasticity. By increasing the elasticity, the muscles are able to stretch further during your workout without becoming injured. Your warm-up should include what is called ???dynamic stretching???. This is where you do moving stretches that stretch the muscle out and then relax it. This is repeated over and over again until the muscle is able to achieve the length needed for the activity you are going to pursue without feeling excessive strain.
The second benefit of a good warm-up is that it reduces lactic acid buildup in the muscles. When you workout intensely you get waste products (lactic acid) that build up in your muscles and this reduces the intensity with which you can workout as well as causes soreness in the muscles. By gradually increasing the intensity of your workout through a proper warm-up, you delay the process of lactic acid buildup. The muscles are better able to effectively get rid of the lactic acid and this gives you a better workout.
If you are playing sports a proper warm-up also helps facilitate the mind-muscle connection. This helps your brain send the right messages to the right muscles in the fastest way possible. If you???ve ever tried to go play a sport and feel a little ???rusty??? when you start you???ll know what this means. Your hand eye coordination and balance just don???t seem right if you go straight into activity. Therefore, a proper warm-up that gets the mind-muscle link properly established will allow you to be ready to compete right from the start of your competition. This includes footwork drills where the feet are made to move over and around objects, balance drills that challenge both sides of the body and hand eye coordination drills for sports that involve the use of objects.
Plan a proper warm-up into your exercise routine and we guarantee you will notice better results immediately.
About the Author: Alex K is an online Fitness Professional providing health and wellness to the world through his online workout program Cardio Blast. Members of www.Cardioblast.com receive new cardio workouts every week, full meal planning, fitness tracking and personal training included with their membership.