Proper Warm Up Techniques
Posted by Chris on Jun 7, 2009 in Workout Info | 0 comments
Everyone knows that warm ups are an important aspect of working out. However not many people realize or utilize the proper approach. A warm up is meant to do a few important vital things:
- Increase blood flow, to your muscles, organs, and through out your body. This increase in blood flow helps the body stay away from fatigue during your workout and will make your recovery faster between sets, and after your workout.
- Stretch and loosen muscles, this is the best way to prevent muscular injury. If you stretch your muscles that you plan on working out then you will be more readily able to workout those particular muscles. The more you stretch the looser the muscles and the less chance of a muscle pull or tear.
- Increase oxygen flow, a good warm up consists of semi-strenuous cardio to increase heart beats/min and the amount of oxygen in your bloodstream.
Now of course there are many other benefits to beginning a workout with a proper warm up but these three are the most important to those looking to get fit.
Different Warm Up Techniques
There are a few different approaches one can take in a warm up, I will show you the most common routine I have seen and use myself. I always begin with a good stretch, since we will be doing some cardio after the stretching it is a good idea to start with stretching to reduce the risk of injury or cramping. Many gyms come outfitted with a stretching rack, this is a great way to get good deep stretches in and most of the racks show you by muscle how to stretch, for informational purposes I will detail stretching without the rack.
Manual Stretching
I generally begin with a decent leg stretch to prepare for cardio, then cardio, then specific muscle stretching. To stretch your legs enough for cardio it is best to start with toe-touches. To perform toe-touches you keep your feet together and knees straight, you bend at your waist and hold your legs stiff while touching your toes with your fingers, don’t get discouraged if you can’t reach your toes just make sure you are feeling the deep leg stretch be sure to hold this for ~10 secs.
Next, I like to stretch my quads (your big thigh muscle) if you balance on one leg and pull your other foot from behind to your butt, you will feel a deep stretch of your quad, you should hold this for ~10secs then switch legs.
Now we can stretch our calves if your perform a lung and rest your upper body weight on your lead leg, while keeping your trailing leg flat but bending forward, you will feel a deep calf stretch again you want to hold this for ~10 secs per leg.
I usually like to do one final stretch before beginning my cardio, this stretch I learned in Tae Kwon Doe. You need to squat a few inches above one foot on its tippy toes, while your other foot it and leg are outstretched. While your hovering over your one foot you stretch your body towards your extended foot allowing your entire leg to stretch. Once again hold for ~10 seconds and then switch legs.
Light Cardio
The reason I call this light cardio is because we are trying to get increased oxygen and blood flow to our bodies, we are not trying to burn calories, fat, or increase our cardio endurance. Generally I find the bike cardio machine to be the best for light cardio since it is much harder to over exert yourself. Generally I will perform my light cardio for 5 minutes, with a 2 minute optional cool down. During the cardio aim to keep your heart rate at a moderate rate, you don’t want to be panting, sweating, or even breathing heavy. This cardio should put a very minor amount of fatigue on your legs while allowing you to increase bodily oxygen levels and blood flow. Now on to muscle-specific stretches.
Muscle Specific Stretching
Depending on what muscle groups you are working out, you may get away with just stretching that muscle group however, the best approach I have found is to follow a daily all muscle group stretch which helps keep all of your muscles loose and ready. If you follow this stretching every day you will find your muscles have increased endurance, less cramping, and better overall recovery. My routine looks like this:
- -Begin with brining both hand out in front of you, interlock your fingers, and flip your hands palms out. The more you push out the better the stretch, you should feel a stretch in your back (lats), your chest (pectorals), and your arms (biceps/triceps/forearms). I generally hold this stretch for 10-15 seconds.
- Now we bring our hands behind our back, interlock, and face our palms out again, once again the further you push the better the stretch. This is great for stretching your chest (pectorals), shoulders (delts/ front delts), and your arms (biceps/triceps/forearms). Another 10-15 seconds stretch.
- Next, we cross one arm in front of our body and pull it across with the other arm. This should look like a cross since one arm is stretched in front of the body on top of the other arms bicep, the other arm is then brought up at the elbow to tighten down on the chest-crossing arm and stretch your back, chest, shoulder, and arms. You will want to hold this for 10-15 seconds, and switch arms.
- Finally, we perform a great upper body stretch which helps pull the bigger muscles into a deep stretch. For this you bend one arm behind your head, so your palm is on the center of your back just below your neck. You use your other arm to push downward on your elbow so that you get a full delt, and lat stretch. Once again hold for 10-15 seconds and switch arms.
This is my general warm up routine which has served me very well, as I have never pulled a muscle or sustained any similar injury in the gym. I would recommend stretching every single day, generally in the morning if your aren’t going to the gym, this will help keep you limber, loose and more apt to a fast recovery.
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