When you start to exercise, i.e. move in a way that raises your heart rate, certain changes start to take place in your body. Blood flow throughout the body increases delivering more oxygen and nutrients to the cells.
These changes are preparing the body’s systems for extra demands that will be made on them. By warming up, i.e. exercising and stretching gently to start with you are giving the body warning and time to mobilise its energy supplies before major demands are made of it.
This helps muscles particularly, to undertake aerobic function as they have plenty of oxygen, and this is their preferred type of metabolism, producing less troublesome waste products than anaerobic metabolism, and hence causing less stiffness and discomfort afterwards.
It is only when the oxygen supply can’t keep up with the muscles demands for energy that it has to turn to anaerobic metabolism, which is via a different chemical pathway. By stretching and working your joints you are also sending messages to the neuromuscular system that help prime the joints and ligaments for further movement, and this reduces the risk of ligament tearing.
You don’t want to spend too long on warming up though otherwise it may reduce your overall performance. If you work out or train in the morning it may take a little longer to warm through as muscles and joints can still be somewhat dormant. A good way to start warming up is with 5 minutes or so on a rowing machine, skipping, or just walking. After warming up the muscles you should do some muscle stretching exercises.
Muscle stiffness is directly to muscle injury, and therefore the muscle warm up should be aimed at reducing muscle stiffness. When doing static stretches hold for about 10 seconds, building gradually to 30 seconds.
If you are not sure how to do stretches correctly you could join a sports club or ask your local gym for advice. A rowing machine helps to invigorate upper body muscles as well as lower, and is a good all round trainer. If you train in the afternoon your body core temperature will all ready be high so you don’t need to overdo the warming up. Just exercise the muscles you are planning on using.
If it’s a cardio exercise then begin at about 30% of your normal intensity for 3-4 minutes to build up steam. As well as warming up before exercise you should ideally cool down after an exercise session. If your main workout involved running, it is a good idea to run at a slower pace as you reach the end of your session and cool down gradually.
This can help with breaking down waste products produced in the muscles from metabolism, and help to prevent the soreness and stiffness that often develops after vigorous or extended exercise.
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