Hi guys, I was just wondering if it were essential to warm up before training. I know this sounds like a really stupid question to some of you, but i have read so many different articles from so called “experts”. Some say that you just need to do a light jog, some say streching is warming up and some reckon it is not necassary to warm up at all. Could you guys please tell me what you do for a warm up, if in fact you do warm up at all?
Thanks-Jo
All you really have to do is warm you’re body up 1 degree in order to worm the joints t help avoid injury so I never do more than a 5-10 minute jog. Also stretching is needed to gaurdagainst injury I’ve ready T-Mag writers say they recomend stretching for a third of the time you’re work out will be. Plus every old guy i see with a broke down body is always weezing “Oh,if i would have just stretched more I wouldn’t have a back like a dinosaur and be forced to wear these braces on every joint on my body”
As far as warming up goes, for me, i tend to just perform 1 or 2 reps on the chosen excersise, but at 45% or there abouts of Maximum weight. Then up the weight and carry on as normal
Just my 2 cents, but I think that the “warmup” and “cooldown” phases are the most critical and least focused on of the actual lifting routine. To maintain flexibility, as well as preventing injury, I do at least 10 min. of stretching before AND after lifting the weights. Before the stretching though, I usually do about 5 min. of cardio just to get the heart pumping and raise the body temperature a little bit. I still keep my routines to under 60 min with all the stretching, but I find that I DRAMATICALLY reduce the stiffness and muscle soreness that you usually experience over the next few days…(what’s that term? DOMS?? Something like that)…
At the VERY least do some jumping jacks or something…