Warming up: an essential step
It’s tempting to skip the warm up and go straight to your workout routine. We tend to focus on the workout, setting exciting goals for it – how fast we’ll go, or how much weight we’ll lift. But skipping the warm up session is a bad idea that can lead to injury, and when you’re injured, you may be unable to workout at all or at your normal pace for weeks. Additionally, a good warm up can actually make your workout more effective. Why not give yourself every possible advantage in exercise?
It only takes about five minutes to do a proper warm up, so it’s not that hard to incorporate it into your overall routine. Your goal with the warm up is literally to get your muscles warmed up and lots of oxygen flowing through your blood, and that takes a few minutes of fairly vigorous moving. You don’t have to work up a sweat, but you do want to feel your body heating up. What constitutes a proper warm up?
- Jumping jacks gets your whole body going.
- Jogging in place
- Lunges
- Jumping rope
- Walking or jogging up and down stairs. If you do this on the way to the gym, or within the gym as you move from one level to another, that’s part of your warm up done already.
- A brisk walk to the gym, if it’s close to your home or work. Or if the parking lot at your gym is long enough, you may get a couple minutes’ walking or jogging done before you even enter the building.
- Yoga breathing exercises. Done properly, yoga breathing can actually warm your muscles and get the blood flowing sufficiently for your workout.
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