Fitness Gear: Warm Up Is Extremely Important

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Saturday, April 25, 2009

Individuals who work out regularly are aware of the importance of warming up, prior to working out. One of the biggest benefits of warming up before working out is that it will help to reduce an individual's risk of injury. In fact, recent studies have shown that warming up before an individual participates in any type of sports training or exercise is crucial.

If you are working out regularly, then you need to have a structured warm up routine. Do not under estimate the benefits that a regular warm up routine can have in the prevention of an injury. There are some key elements that factor into having an effective warm up routine. These elements work together to help minimize the likelihood of an individual getting injured.

There are a number of benefits to warming up prior to any type of physical activity. However, the primary purpose to warming up is to properly prepare the body for more strenuous activity. You can do this by increasing your body's core temperature, as well as the muscle temperature, which happens when warming up.

When the body's muscle temperature is increased, the muscles become loose. For your warm up to be effective, it needs to be able to increase your heart rate as well as your respiratory rate, which in turn increases blood flow. The increased blood will increase the amount of oxygen and nutrients being delivered to the muscles.

All of these factors working together will prepare your muscles, joints, and tendons for any type of strenuous activity. Your warm up workout should start with an easy and gentle activity. This activity should be built upon with more energetic activities, until your body is at its peak condition, which means it is ready to begin the real workout.

The general warm up is the first step in the warm up routine and should be a light, physical activity. How hard and how long you participate in the general warm up, needs to be determined by your fitness level.

For an average individual the warm up period should take up to ten minutes, which will elevate the heart and respiratory rate. In turn, this will increase the blood flow. Static stretching is the safest and most effective form of stretching. Individuals have little threat of injury with static stretching and it can be beneficial for the individual's overall flexibility.

Be sure to warm up and stretch before intense workout programs like the P90X workout and the new Shaun T Insanity.

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