Warming Up – The Forgotten Exercise

Often when people talk about warming up, they do not understand how literally that should be taken. When you use a muscle, the temperature in the area actually rises, allowing you to contract the muscle much more forcefully. This makes it possible to train more intensely and to derive more benefit from your workout.


Warming up also pumps fresh, oxygenated blood to the area raises the blood pressure and increases the blood rate. This provides a maximum oxygen supply to the body and helps eliminate the waste products of exercise from the working muscles. Finally, warming up properly helps to protect the body from becoming overstressed prepares it for the heavy demands of heavy training and reduces the chance of injury, such as sprain or strain.

There are lots of ways to warm up. Some bodybuilders enjoy a short run before training, enough to get the heart going but not enough to deplete the body of energy. Calisthenics and other light exercises also give you a warm-up without putting any great stress on the body. But the most popular method of warming up is with the weight themselves. First spend some time stretching and than do some moderately light movements with a barbell or dumbbell, hitting each body part and turn until the body is ready for something more strenuous.

Than, for each different exercise during your workout you begging with one light warm-up set I order to get those specific muscles ready to do that specific movement. When you do a s et or two with higher reps and less maximum weight, your muscles are than ready to deal with a greater intensity generated by heavier weights and six rep sets.

Warming up is even more important for power training because you are going to subject the body to still greater stress. The best idea is not to do power movements until your body gets into gear by doing the less stressful exercises first.

The time of day is also a factor in determining how much warming up you need. If you are training in the morning you are likely to be tighter and in more of need of stretching and warming up than at night, so adjust your preliminaries accordingly.

Always take care that you warm up thoroughly. If you are about to do heavy shoulder presses, for example, remember that you are going to involve more than your deltoids and triceps. The muscles of the neck and trapezoids will also contract intensely during the movement, and they should be given time to get ready as well.

Injuries in the gym happen for two main reasons: either the person used sloppy technique, too much weight or failing to keep the weight under total control or did not stretch or warm up properly.

By: Drake Dillon

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Drake has a diverse know how from weight training to a round shower curtain rod . With a well rounded wealth of information, enjoy his other articles about circular shower rod soon to be published.

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Exercise Articles Via RSS!

© 2005-2009 Article Dashboard. All Rights Reserved.