3 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD WARM UP BEFORE EXERCISING
Let’s face it, we don’t take the time to warm up before exercising.
Who has time for that? Better yet, why do I need to do that?
Warming up is an essential part of exercising with many benefits to warming up.
Here are the top 3 reasons you should warm up.
Wakes Up Your Central Nervous System
First, what the hell is your nervous system?
The CNS (central nervous system) is what controls most of our mind and body.
When we think of exercising we only think about how our workout will only impact our weight loss goals or our strength goals.
Our nervous system plays a big factor in how our workout will go. If our brain is cluttered from the stressors of the day it can be hard to focus on the task at hand, our workout.
Having a warm up can help your brain get prepared for your workout.
Mentally Prepares You
It’s 5:30 am and you hear the alarm going off, we are tired and don’t want to get out of bed. We fight through the exhaustion and get ready to go to the gym anyway. (Proud of you!)
We get to the gym and get right into our workout. It takes about 15-20 minutes into your workout before you start feeling energized and ready to go.
Warming up can mentally prepare you for your workout. With a proper warm up you can train your brain to get ready for the stress you are going to put it through.
Warming up can prepare your mind for an awesome leg day rather than trying to avoid it.
Prevents Injuries
We spend all day sitting at our job not doing anything really physically demanding. We are in a tight position slumped over our computer listening to our boss talk about how we need to improve our work quality.
We leave work getting ready to go and do some deadlifts to get rid of the frustrations for the day. Once we get to the gym we load up the bar with some weights and jump right into our first set of deadlifts.
After the first few reps you feel a sharp pain in your back and you know that you’re done for the day, and probably the week.
When we include a proper warm up, it can help us prevent injuries like these from happening.
The reason a warm up can prevent injuries, is because you have woken up the nervous system, got good blood flow to the muscles, and have mentally prepared for your workout.
What you should do
Warm ups do not have to be 15 minutes long, nor do they need to be super hard and get you sweaty.
Walking on a treadmill or doing lighter weights of an exercise IS NOT a warm up.
A Proper Warmup Should Include The Following:
Foam rolling tight areas
Ground exercises
Quadruped exercises
Core exercises
Hip exercises
Shoulder exercises
Dynamic exercises
These can be done in 5-8 minutes and will get you ready to go for your workout.
If you want to be more successful in your workouts make sure to be warming up!
Here is a video of a warm up you can do for your next workout!
(INSERT VIDEO FROM YOUTUBE: GENERAL WARM UP)