If you’re thinking about skipping the warm up…
So, you’re tight for time but you just need to get a workout in. Just skip over the warmup and it will cut your time down. Anyway, those moves that you’re told to do by some trainer really do not matter. Right? What really matters is that you get a good sweat on, push something heavy and feel AWESOME when you walk out the door, Right?!?!
Well now hold on there, Skippy. There happens to be very good reason to NEVER skip your warmup and cool down after your workout. In fact, the people that train with me never do even when they walk into a workout late. In Longevity’s eyes, it is essential to prepare your body for its workout and then at the end quickly begin the recovery period (some say the most important part) of your workout. And that is what you are doing. Preparing. Recovery.
Hold on there, Skippy!
According to Kimberly Burke[1] who is the Director of Adult Fitness Program at Colorado State University,
“Heading straight into a workout without a warm-up and promptly finishing exercise with no cool down is not the best approach (read: It’s bad, don’t do it). Incorporating a warm-up and cool down is a great way to slowly increase your total time of exercise, decrease the risk of injury, and improve workout performance. “
“Warm-ups are like priming the pump for exercise. In most instances, it’s of no benefit to go from zero to 60, so start incorporating a warm-up of 5-10 minutes on the bike, treadmill, track, or try some dynamic movements. “
Warm up activities include light jogging, or cycling slowly on a bike[2]. Warming up before exercise prepares your cardiovascular system for physical activity, by increasing the blood flow to your muscles, and raising the temperature of your body. It also helps to lower the risk of getting injured – when your muscles are adequately warmed up, the movements, stretches, and strain you put on them during your workout is less severe. This also minimizes muscle soreness.
Warm ups and cool downs do not need to take much time
Typically, during a Longevity workout our client begins with 3-5 minutes of cardio. This is done to get your heart rate up and get your legs pumping which in turn pushes your lower body joints (knees, hips & ankles) to move more aggressively than they have been doing that day prior to your workout. After that we do some dynamic range of motion movements for the upper body. Again, this is to push your joints aggressively so that they get some blood pumping at a higher rate onto these areas of your body. Which in turn “warms up” those parts of your body so that they are not as tight or as inflexible as when you walked into the gym.
These times are also a good time for you to check in with your body. Most of your waking hours are probably not doing anything as specifically challenging as exercise should be. So if you have a particularly tight hamstring or maybe your shoulder is tighter than usual this is also the time to acknowledge this and work on these areas a little longer in order for you to prevent any injuries that could occur during your workout.
Many, many times I have had a client tell me that after doing a 2nd set of a certain exercise, even after adding a little weight, that that 2nd set was actually easier than the first. That happens for the same reason that you want to do a warmup prior to your workout. If you’re going to be doing some upper body movements, you certainly want to do some range of motion exercises prior in order to prepare that joint area for what is to come. Just like the reason that that 2nd set is easier. Even if the weight is a little heavier. The joint has already been pushed a little. The blood is flowing into the area at a higher rate. It’s preparing itself for more.
If you walked into a gym right now and did no warm up but went right to the squat rack, put some weight on your back and started squatting, you are not going to be able to push as much as you could if you were properly warmed up. Your knees, ankles, hip, glutes and whatever else is down there are going to be too tight to do a good amount of quality reps compared to if you took the time to warm up. This is why we NEVER skip a warm up. If you think that 2nd set was easier than the first then imagine how hard that 1st set would have been if you hadn’t warmed-up your upper body before performing it.
In part 2 of this series we will discuss the importance of a proper cool down.