Warm-up before training: an effective set of exercises. Why you need to warm up before training

Not all beginners understand that warming up before training is an integral part of the training process. By taking this rule as a basis, you will protect yourself from many unnecessary injuries, maintain athletic longevity and increase the benefits of working out in the gym. In this article we will figure out how to properly warm up before training and why it is necessary.

The benefits of warming up before exercise

Dynamic warm-up for the average athlete lasts no more than 5-10 minutes. It would seem, what could happen in such a short time? In reality, a lot is happening - let’s look at all the positive consequences.

Warming up the entire articular-ligamentous apparatus

If you go to the gym after work or school, never skip the warm-up. You likely haven't had much physical activity throughout the day. During this time, all the ligaments have lost their elasticity; they are literally stretched like ropes. If they are not properly warmed up, the risk of sprained or torn ligaments increases.

It's the same with joints. The goal of any joint gymnastics or light strength warm-up with light weights is to increase the synthesis of joint lubrication. If you don't do this, in the long term you increase the likelihood of developing arthritis or arthrosis.

Preparing the cardiovascular system for stress

The heart is the most important muscle in the body of any athlete. Without a healthy heart, not only progress in sports is impossible, but also an active lifestyle in general. At rest, the heart rate of an adult is 60-80 beats per minute. With active load it increases to 140-170 beats.

If you avoid warming up, your heart feels like it jumps from first gear in a car straight to fifth. This leads to hypertrophy of the heart muscle. In the medical community this is usually called "". Sometimes this passes without consequences, but is often accompanied by arrhythmia, tachycardia and hypertension. Your heart rate should increase consistently, which is why proper warm-up before exercise is important.

Warming up the muscles

Fitness, crossfit or bodybuilding classes are impossible without neuromuscular connections. A 10-minute warm-up will help you feel how your muscle fibers stretch and contract. Then the training will be more productive: you will feel the work of the muscles, and not the joints and ligaments. Without this, a full set of muscle mass is impossible.

Plus, you reduce the chance of injury. In professional strength sports, a tear or tear is quite common. The most common reason is lack of warm-up. This happens because unstretched and “cold” muscles are more susceptible to cramps and spasms. When an athlete attempts to lift a weight without warming up, the muscle fibers become stretched or torn. Most often this happens to the pectoral muscles and inner thighs.

Mental preparation

Psychology in sports is the most important part of the training and competitive process. Do you plan to have a record in the deadlift or bench press? Installing it (and simply working with heavy weights) will be almost impossible, and even extremely dangerous without performing warm-up approaches. After some light cardio, grab an empty bar and start doing the exercise with it. Each repetition should be slow and controlled - constantly feel the muscles working. Gradually increase the weight of the weight. This way you will mentally tune in to your maximum result.

Smooth increase in body temperature

During intense exercise, your body temperature rises. This is an absolutely natural process. The purpose of warming up is to start thermoregulation processes, then you will be comfortable exercising and your health will not worsen. Warm up until light sweat appears on your forehead, this is a kind of indicator that your body is ready for exercise.

By not warming up, you increase the likelihood of injury. In power sports, this causes at least half of the injuries. The most common problem among athletes of any level of training is sprained ligaments. This injury plagues athletes from many sports: crossfit, powerlifting, martial arts, football, etc. During the warm-up, your ligaments become more elastic and better absorb the force load.

Joint injuries are slightly less common. The most affected areas are the knees, elbows, hands and shoulder joints. Spending 10 minutes doing rotational exercises, low-weight assistance exercises, stretching, and a couple of warm-up sets with an empty bar or light dumbbells will reduce your risk of injury to almost nothing.

Any injuries always mean a stop in progress, a break in training for up to several months and a rollback of existing results. One wrong action or careless movement can throw you out of your usual rut for six months.

In the long term, not warming up has a negative impact on your cardiovascular health. The heart is also a muscle, and it needs to be trained. You just need to do this smoothly and gradually, so a light cardio warm-up is an integral part of any well-structured training program.

Warm-up structure before training in the gym

First of all, do a little joint exercises. It does not take a lot of time. Perform rotational movements, turns in different directions and similar movements. We recommend starting from top to bottom and warming up in approximately this order:

cervical spine;
shoulder joints;
thoracic spine;
elbow joint and hands;
lumbar spine;
knees;
ankle and calves.

Choose one or two movements that you are comfortable performing. Perform 20-30 repetitions of each. This will warm up your joints and ligaments and protect them from damage during heavier work. Stick to an average pace; there should be no sudden or jerky movements. Approximate time for performing the joint gymnastics complex: 3-5 minutes.

Stretching

As the next step, we recommend a small stretching routine. We need to statically stretch each muscle group. This mobilizes muscle tissue, stretches fascia, and stimulates blood and oxygen flow to cells. There is no need to stretch for a long time; it is enough to linger at the point of maximum tension for about 15 seconds.

Start doing it the same way - from top to bottom. Pay special attention to the pectoral muscles, latissimus dorsi, spinal extensors, hamstrings, and hip adductors. This way you will prepare your muscles for the power load, protect yourself from injury and you will better feel the contraction and stretching of the muscles in each repetition.

A regular hang on the bar is suitable for this. The most comfortable way to stretch the pectoral muscles is by leaning one hand on the racks and leaning your whole body forward. To stretch your lower back and hamstrings, use straight-legged forward bends. Approximate stretching time: 3 minutes.

Cardio

The next step is to do some light cardio. Your task is to prepare the cardiovascular system for stress. Do light aerobic exercise with a heart rate of up to 130 beats per minute. This is the average heart rate at which the processes of lipolysis (oxidation of adipose tissue) are launched. Walking on a treadmill, exercise bike, stepper or ellipse is ideal for these purposes. When you feel that your body temperature has increased slightly, you can finish. Five minutes should be enough to warm up properly.

Warm clothes help to warm up well. Warm up with a sweatshirt on and then take it off during exercise. This will raise your body temperature faster and save you some time.

Strength exercises without weights

The final stage of the warm-up before training in the gym will be to perform with light weights. They will help you feel the muscles working properly and improve blood circulation in them. This results in a slight variation of pre-fatigue.

Pay special attention to exercises for those muscle groups that you are training today. Shoulder day? Perform 3 sets of side and front swings with the lightest dumbbells you have in your gym. Heavy squat ahead? Do three sets of bodyweight squats. Approximate time to complete the complex: 5-7 minutes. Rest for a couple of minutes and start your main workout.

We have given an approximate warm-up complex for the whole body before training in the gym. If you are limited in time, one or two stages can be removed from it - this is not critical.

Home workout complex

Warming up before working out at home will be a little different. You can remove the cardio load from it, since any home workouts do not involve the same intensity as training in the gym, and only slightly increase your heart rate. However, you can safely replace walking on a treadmill with running in place or a couple of rounds of “shadow boxing” (imitation of boxing sparring with an imaginary opponent). This will only be beneficial. Cardio can be replaced with full-body warm-up exercises, such as Jumping Jack (jumping while clapping overhead) or squats and throwing a ball against a wall.

If time is short, do a short warm-up before training - limit yourself to joint exercises and stretching. These are the two most important components. However, be sure to gradually increase the working weights in the basic movements, otherwise you risk injury.

An important principle of warming up is not to overdo it. You should not feel tired: on the contrary, proper warm-up adds strength and vigor.

The more experience you have, the longer the warm-up should be. Your muscles are stronger than those of beginners, you lift heavier weights and train more intensely. Therefore, it takes more time to tone all body systems. Don’t be lazy: your athletic longevity and progress largely depend on warming up.

There are no fundamental differences between warming up before training for men and girls. However, in most cases, men take longer because their training is more intense.

Warm-up exercises before training

The first stage of the warm-up is to tone all joints and ligaments. There is nothing complicated here: perform rotational movements, turns and tilts in each direction. Start at the neck and work your way down to the ankle. 20-30 repetitions will be enough. When stretching your neck, it is better to do without rotational movements. The cervical spine is the most fragile, and any sudden movement is fraught with potential danger. Pay special attention to warming up the rotator cuff of the shoulder joint. Perform swing movements in different planes: to the sides, up, back, etc. The more there are, the better. The main thing is to take your time and do not make sudden movements.

With the stretching complex, everything is also simple. This is not just about splits; every muscle group can and should be stretched. The benefits of stretching are enormous; it is an essential part of the training process for athletes from any discipline. The main principle of proper stretching: you should feel muscle tension, not pain. There shouldn't be any discomfort.

Then we begin to perform cardio exercise. We warm up a little and move on to strength exercises. Here our task is to isolate the working muscle groups as much as possible and load them. That is why isolated exercises are suitable for a general warm-up, and not, for example, deadlifts.

Muscle group	Warm-up exercises	Number of approaches and repetitions
Neck	Lying neck curls with a disc on the forehead or back of the head	2 x 20
Shoulders	Swing with dumbbells to the sides or standing in front of you Wide grip barbell row	2 x 25
Breast	Crossover Pushups	3 x 20
Back	Wide grip pull-ups Wide grip lat row Hyperextension	2 x 15
Hands	Arm extensions from the upper block with a rope handle Low bicep curl with EZ handle	3 x 20
Press	Crunches while sitting in a machine	2 x 25
Legs	Leg extensions while sitting in a machine Leg curls while sitting in a machine Leg curls while sitting in the exercise machine Bodyweight squats	3 x 20

All exercises are performed with minimal weight. Your goal is not to fill your muscles with blood as much as possible and reach failure; you just need to “wake up” your body and prepare it for a heavier load.

Is it necessary to warm up before cardio training?

The answer is obvious: it is necessary. Before any more or less intense load, it is necessary to mobilize all body systems. Before running, cycling, elliptical or other type of aerobic exercise, pay special attention to warming up your hip, knee and ankle joints. Don't be lazy to spend 5-10 minutes on this. 20 rotational movements with each leg in a circle, 30 squats with your own weight and a couple of sets of forward bends will be enough. Be sure to give your quadriceps, inner thighs, and hamstrings a good stretch.

The first few minutes of cardio are also part of the warm-up. Start at a slow pace: just walk at a slightly faster pace or pedal half-heartedly. When you feel your knees and hips are ready for more intense work, gradually increase your speed.

No matter how much time a person devotes to physical exercise, every time he starts training, he needs to prepare the body for it. The body is a complex machine, and in order to launch physiological processes that help train muscles and heart, increase the elasticity of ligaments, you need to warm up. How to do this correctly?

Warm-up: benefit or waste of time?

Not everyone is ready to spend 5-10 minutes at the beginning of classes on warming up exercises; warming up before fitness is often neglected by both people with health problems and seasoned athletes. Their argument is that preparing the body for exercise does not contribute to achieving the goal - muscle growth, strength, endurance, etc. And in general, they would be right, if not for one thing.

The body in its normal state is not ready for intense stress. Imagine being woken up and forced to do squats with a good barbell. Perhaps, such stress is experienced by an organism unprepared for long-term physical work. Sprains and injuries are likely if you start exercises right away.

To warm up your muscles well with a warm-up complex, 5 to 15 minutes is enough. At this time, the body is saturated with oxygen, blood vessels and capillaries dilate, and the elasticity of ligaments and tendons increases. The better the warm-up, the easier strength training is and complex coordination movements are achieved. Also, physical warm-up gradually includes the mental part - attention, concentration, and tunes the mind to work with the body. Did you feel a surge of energy after the warm-up? So the body is ready!

Variety of warm-up exercises

The decision on the nature and duration of the warm-up is made by the athlete himself or the coach. Putting together a simple set of warm-up exercises for yourself is a task that everyone can do. Listen to your body, pay more attention to those parts of the body that are less susceptible to warming up.

Take special care of parts of the body that have been previously injured. Dedicate as much time to these muscles and ligaments until you are completely sure that they will feel good during the main exercises. There are many gels with warming substances and extracts that stimulate blood flow, but they cannot completely replace a warm-up.

The warm-up has a gradation according to the type of difficulty: classic, special warm-up, warm-up-stretch.

The first complex includes exercises that are suitable for any type of athlete; it is aimed at making the body as a whole ready for stress.

A special warm-up is distinguished by an emphasis on a separate muscle group; a lot of attention is paid to it in a set of warm-up exercises.

Warm-up-stretching helps improve the functionality of muscles, ligaments, and joints.

General warm-up. Basic principles

Let's take a closer look at the classic warm-up. As a rule, this complex includes joint gymnastics, walking at a fast pace, swinging legs and arms, body turns, squats, push-ups. To ensure that the warm-up is beneficial for the body, we advise you to familiarize yourself with the following principles:

moderate intensity;
warming up each muscle group;
attention to easily injured parts of the body (ankles, hands, shoulder joints).

Cardio warm-up

Along with a general warm-up of all parts of the body, running is the best and most affordable cardio. A few minutes of running gets your blood pumping just as well as special exercises. However, it is recommended to do a cardio warm-up before training with bending, muscle stretching, and 15-20 squats. Walk quickly for the first 100 meters, then accelerate to your desired pace.

Fitness warm-up

Here are exercises that will not take much time, but will allow you to thoroughly work out each muscle group before training.

Running in place or raising your knees - 1-2 minutes.
Neck tilts forward/backward, left/right and turns clockwise and counterclockwise.
We warm up the shoulder girdle: rotate the hands in one direction and the other 10 times, repeat the same movements for the elbow and shoulder joints. We straighten our arms in a lock in front of us, raise them up in this position, and try to stretch the muscles. Now hands are locked behind your back - stretch the muscles.
Body tilts left/right, forward and backward, circular rotations in both directions 10 times.
Joint fitness warm-up before training for the lower extremities: we do rotational movements in the hip, knee, ankle joints; and different types of lunges (lateral, cross, forward and backward) will warm up the leg muscles.
We finish the warm-up with light cardio: a couple of minutes on a jump rope or running with high knees, the “Star” exercise.

Warm up before the press

Abdominal exercises are often included as the final part of a fitness routine. Sometimes those who like to pump up their abs train them separately. In this case, during the general warm-up, more attention should be paid to the muscles of the lower back and core.

Positive training and lightness in the body!

Warm-up and cool-down are like brushing your teeth, everyone knows that it is necessary, important and useful, but many people neglect them. Zozhnik understands the consequences of skipping a warm-up or cool-down from a scientific point of view.

Norwegian sports doctors conducted a large-scale study that involved 1,840 handball players. They divided the test subjects into two groups: one group did a special warm-up before training, and the other did not.

After 8 months, they calculated the statistics and found that the players who warmed up before training showed 2 times fewer sports injuries than players who (for scientific purposes) did not warm up at all.

In general, warming up, according to the results of a number of studies and the opinion of experts, has a positive effect on all systems of the body (including the psyche), preparing it for stress.

The effect of warming up on the body and psyche

Here's what happens to the body during warm-up:

– The cardiovascular system: During a warm-up, your heart rate increases and more blood begins to circulate throughout your body. This way the muscles are better supplied with oxygen and nutrients.

– Arterial pressure: Blood pressure rises. Blood begins to flow faster through the vessels and thereby better supplies the muscles with nutrients.

– Breath: breathing becomes faster, thus increasing pulmonary ventilation and meeting the growing oxygen demand.

– Nervous system: neuromuscular connection improves, thereby reducing the need for energy, the central nervous system gets tired more slowly, and the reaction speed increases.

– Body temperature: during a good warm-up, body temperature rises to 38.5 - 39 degrees Celsius. Under such conditions, physiological reactions occur most efficiently.

– Joints and ligaments: the body produces more joint fluid, thereby increasing the volume of articular cartilage. In this way, the pressure exerted on the articular cartilage can be more easily tolerated. Ligaments and tendons become more elastic due to increased temperature.

– Muscles: muscles fill with blood, become more resilient and less susceptible to damage.

– Psyche: Warm-up increases concentration and perception. Increased concentration helps to cope with sudden critical situations during training or competition (for example, some kind of obstacle). An optimal warm-up also increases motivation for upcoming physical activity, reduces stiffness and reduces nervousness.

General warm-up rules

As physical education specialist Heinz-Dieter Recktenwald from the University of Münster (Germany) notes, there are general rules for organizing a warm-up that must be taken into account:

– Intensity: During warm-up, body temperature should increase gradually so as not to tire the student. The intensity also depends on the time of day, weather conditions, age and training experience of the practitioner.

– Duration: between 10 and 15 minutes.

– Interval: the interval between warm-up and actual training should not be more than 5 minutes. Despite the fact that the body temperature remains elevated for a long time, such a very important effect as increased blood filling of the muscles rapidly decreases after a couple of minutes.

– Times of Day: The time of day at which the training and, accordingly, the warm-up is carried out is also of great importance: if you work out in the morning, the warm-up should last longer than in the evening, since the body needs time to wake up.

Stretching is not a warm-up and reduces results

As part of the warm-up, you should not perform static stretching (that is, when the trainee holds the muscle under tension for a long time, stretching it).

A study conducted by the Department of Physiology at St. Stephen's University in Texas found that static stretching before a leg workout reduced subjects' squat performance in the amount of weight athletes could handle for one repetition by 8.4%. Thus, we can conclude that static stretching before training impairs the athletic performance of trainees, so it should not be included in the warm-up program.

Static stretching is useful as part of a cool-down, also for preventing injury, and stretching after a workout will not have a negative impact on your results.

Another thing is dynamic stretching, which is performed in the pumping style. Ideal exercises for this stretching are lunges, bodyweight squats, and burpees. This kind of stretching is ideal as part of a warm-up and helps improve muscle strength and flexibility, which was confirmed in a study by the University of North Carolina.

Cool down – transition to a calm state

Thanks to the cool-down, a faster recovery of body functions exhausted by training is achieved. The training process is a test for the body, after which it needs recovery. Recovery is one of the most important phases in gaining muscle mass. The better and faster the exerciser rests, the more intensely he can train and thus, for example, quickly build muscle mass or other trained skills.

The cool down has the following goals:

– Reduced muscle tension.

– Regulation of the cardiovascular system (pulse, pressure, body temperature, etc.).

– Restoration of the central nervous system.

– Accelerated removal of metabolic end products (for example, lactic acid) from the body.

However, the current belief that cooling down helps avoid long-term muscle soreness is erroneous. A study conducted at the University of Sydney on 25 athletes found that cooling down immediately after exercise had no effect on long-term muscle soreness.

The cool-down should not last longer than 5-10 minutes. The pulse during the cool-down should not exceed 120 beats per minute. It can be done on an exercise bike, treadmill or elliptical trainer. It is also recommended to stretch the stressed muscles.

For self-massage after a workout, using a foam roller, which has become widespread in foreign fitness rooms, is also ideal.

“Rolling” all stressed muscles through a roller will allow for better recovery and avoid future injuries.

For a cool-down, a bath, sauna, massage are also indicated - however, these procedures only complement the cool-down and cannot be its main part.

conclusions

Warming up before exercise and cooling down afterward are essential if you want to prevent injury and improve your athletic performance.
Warm-up prepares the entire body for the upcoming physical activity. The cool-down, in turn, allows the body to recover and move from an excited state to a calm one.
Static stretching (stretching) is performed only in the cool-down phase.

Sources:

Odd-Egil Olsen et al.: Exercises to prevent lower limb injuries in youth sports: cluster randomized controlled trial. British Medical Journal 330 (2005): 449.
K, Bruckman, H.D., Recktenwald Schulbuch Sport. Meyer & Meyer Sport, 2012, p.160
Karvonen, J. (1992) Importance of warm up and cool down on exercise performance. Medicine in Sports Training and Coaching; Medicine Sport Science, 35, p. 189-214
Mackenzie, B. (2000) Warm Up and Cool Down
Scoon, G. S., Hopkins, W. G., Mayhew, S. & Cotter, J. D. Effect of post-exercise sauna bathing on the endurance performance of competitive male runners. Journal of science and medicine in sport / Sports Medicine Australia 10, 259-262

A healthy lifestyle and sports are an integral part of the lives of modern men and women. But often, in pursuit of a beautiful body, they make one of the main and gravest mistakes. Arriving at the gym, due to lack of time or ignorance, many immediately begin strength or cardio training, skipping one important detail, namely the warm-up. But it is precisely thanks to it that the maximum effect from the exercises is achieved, and the risk of injury is also reduced.

Why is warm-up necessary?

The effectiveness of a workout directly depends on whether you warmed up before it or not. If you do not warm up your body before the main workout, your body and muscles will not be ready for full work and part of the workout will be spent getting your body ready for it. This means that its effectiveness will significantly decrease.

The main goals of the warm-up:

stretch muscles and ligaments, prepare them for subsequent loads;
saturate muscle fibers with oxygen (aerobic exercise);
dilate blood vessels, increase heart rate;
prevent injury when working with heavy weights;
provoke an adrenaline and testosterone surge, which will make the workout more effective;
speed up metabolic processes;
improve the elasticity of muscle fibers and ligaments, which will also reduce the risk of injury during training;
develop joints, make them more mobile;
increase the tone of the nervous system, thereby improving reaction and concentration.

A completed warm-up before the main workout allows you to perform exercises more confidently and concentrate better. The body becomes noticeably more flexible, which facilitates the training process and makes it possible to perform those exercises that require stretching.

There is no one-size-fits-all warm-up program that is ideal for everyone. The exercises it will consist of are selected by each person independently, depending on the training objectives, the emphasis on certain muscle groups, the need to stretch or prepare the heart and blood vessels for stress.

When drawing up a warm-up program, it is also necessary to take into account body features, in particular body weight, degree of joint mobility, elasticity of muscles and ligaments. The complex also depends on whether you want to warm up the body as a whole or develop a specific muscle group that will be targeted for the main training. That is, a set of exercises for warming up is selected independently, taking into account the above factors, as well as depending on its type. She may be:

general: the whole body warms up and prepares for training;
special: performed before specific exercises, based on movements similar to the main training;
stretching: to stretch muscle groups, ligaments, improve joint mobility.

As a rule, a general warm-up is most often performed, which includes elements of stretching.

The general warm-up includes exercises:

for aerobic exercise (running, jumping rope, walking in place);
for warming up the legs, arms, body;
to improve flexibility;
to increase joint mobility.

When warming up, follow the rules:

you need to run and jump at an average pace, without overloading your muscles;
a too slow rhythm is also not welcome, since in this case you will not get the proper load and the expected result;
Use knee lifts, squats, bends and rotations of the body, head, and arms in your warm-up.

Stretching is an essential part of the warm-up, because it helps not only to prepare the muscles for work, but to make them and ligaments more elastic, which will significantly reduce the risk of injury, especially when working with heavy weights. Stretching warm-up is performed as follows:

Neck muscles: press your chin to your chest for a few seconds, then slowly tilt your head back, repeat several times. Then slowly tilt your head in different directions, feeling how the muscles in your neck stretch, and finally, rotational movements.
Pectoral muscles: stand facing the wall, rest your palms on it. After this, bend over, focusing on your hands, bending them at the elbows. And alternately move in one direction or the other, fixating for a few seconds in the peak phases. Now clasp your hands behind your back, try to raise them as high as possible. In this case, there should be no unpleasant sensations.
Abdominal muscles: Perform side bends at an average pace so that you feel the stretching of the muscles. Place one hand bent on your belt, and lift the other up and lean in the opposite direction, trying to stretch it as much as possible in the direction of movement. Perform repetitions of the exercise left and right.
Shoulder: Place your left hand in front of your body, place it on your chest, with your right hand grab it just above the elbow and try to pull it to the side as much as possible, smoothly and without jerking. Repeat for the other hand. Another stretch option: Raise one arm up, pressing it to your head. With the other, grab your elbow and pull the raised head. Do the exercise for both hands.
Knee-joint. Starting position: standing position, with slightly bent knees, in a half squat. Start making circular movements with your knees, first clockwise, then counterclockwise.
Quadriceps: stand up straight, with one hand against the wall to maintain balance. With the second, grab the foot of the leg bent and raised from behind, slightly pull it towards you, hold for a few moments. Do the same for the other leg.
Biceps femoris: Take one leg back a little, the other forward. Also lean forward with your body, as if you want to bow, pull the toe of your outstretched leg towards you. Do it for both sides.
Gluteal muscle group: lie on your back, straighten your right leg, bend your left at the knee, place your foot closer to your thigh, with your right hand, grab her knee with the same hand and pull it slightly towards the floor. Repeat for both legs. Another option: lunge with one leg, back straight, hold this pose, feeling the stretch in the muscles. Do this several times for each leg.
Shin and hind thigh: sit on the floor, straighten your legs, grab your toes with your hands and hold in this position for a few seconds.

Allow five to ten minutes for stretching during warm-up. By supplementing the warm-up with a stretching routine and performing it regularly, you can almost immediately notice how much more effective your workouts have become. The total duration of the warm-up should be no more than twenty minutes, otherwise it will cause premature fatigue.

Warm-up is preparatory training before the main exercises. As mentioned above, they also include running as an aerobic exercise option. But, in addition to working out in the gym, it can also be a full-fledged workout. Therefore, before jogging, it is also necessary to warm up your muscles and warm up.

Before running, the warm-up begins with walking two hundred meters with a gradual increase in speed. After this, arm swings are added, which can be performed while walking, as well as various bends (to the sides, forward and backward), and lunges. This warm-up ends with squats. A completed warm-up routine before jogging will help avoid injuries and increase the jogging time, its intensity and efficiency.

Cooling down as an important element of training

If a warm-up helps prepare the body for future stress, then a cool-down is the final stage aimed at relaxing the body. It is important to follow both of these training phases, as each has its own role.

The fact is that when a workout is suddenly interrupted, blood accumulates in the muscle tissue, causing the heart to pump it more actively. The frequency of impacts increases, the load on it also increases, because it is necessary to maintain the blood flow required for the entire muscle. A cool-down helps prevent this and allows the body to move from an excited state to a calm and relaxed one.

Performed after finishing the main workout. A set of relaxation exercises should be performed for ten to fifteen minutes. It usually consists of slow running, which turns into walking, stretching and light stretching. As a result, after a cool-down, lactic acid does not linger in the muscles, pulse, body temperature and intramuscular blood flow return to normal.

If you want your workout to be as effective and efficient as possible, and to minimize the risk of herbs, be sure to regularly warm up and cool down before your main exercises.

Greetings to all respected and beloved readers of the blog site!

From birth to this day I have been called Vitakha Okhrimenko and today you and I will have a dialogue about warming up before training in the gym. Today I will highlight the importance of warming up before training, qualify the types of warm-ups, and very soon I will definitely cover existing ones, analyze the topic and publish a publication about. In general, as always, I approach the issue with all seriousness and will not tear myself away from it until I figure it out, as they say, inside and out.

Disadvantage of not warming up before exercise

Unfortunately, most beginners fall into the same rake that I once did. And some people prefer to stand on this rake to this day, periodically swinging on it so that the handle reaches exactly to their forehead. And if with today’s publication I manage to convince at least 1 person of the importance and necessity of warming up before training in the gym, then it’s not in vain that I worked half the night.

Why don't many people warm up?

Studies show that only 5% of trainees do a good warm-up before training, and this is really sad. The overwhelming majority of trainees think, why waste effort and energy on warming up before training in the gym if it doesn’t build muscle, doesn’t help you lose weight, and anything like that.

And this idea is fundamentally wrong, because in addition to the fact that a high-quality warm-up helps protect our body from injury, the effectiveness of the training certainly increases thanks to a normal warm-up. So every time you go to the gym you need to think about how to warm up well before training.

Why do you need to warm up before working out in the gym?

The main mission of warm-up is to prepare the body for training, fill the muscles with blood, warm up muscle tissue to avoid injury, and develop joints. But warming up before strength training helps prepare not only our body, the central nervous system (CNS) also needs to be prepared. After a good warm-up, muscles and joints work better, which directly affects the intensity of strength training.

According to the results of research by the British Medical Journal, regular, not too long warm-up and stretching before training (5-15 minutes) reduces the risk of injury during training by half. And anyone who has ever been injured during training knows how unpleasant it is.

Warming up can be compared to warming up a car in the cold winter - it can and will drive, but it will languish and may stall.

With confidence, which is supported by personal experience, I declare: it is better to warm up and not exercise, than to exercise without warming up. In addition to the fact that training without a warm-up loses intensity and, as a result, effectiveness, you can also inadvertently get injured. And a more or less serious injury during training means 2-4 weeks without your favorite gym. Do we need it? I don't think it's necessary. Therefore, today we will analyze in all its glory how to do a warm-up correctly.

How to properly warm up before training

To better understand how to warm up before training, I suggest dividing the entire warm-up into 4 conventional stages. And if we talk about what kind of warm-up to do before training, I boldly answer: all 4!

Warming up

It is best to start each workout with cardio training. Jogging on a treadmill, riding an exercise bike, running on an orbit track, jumping rope, moving a warm-up with a gymnastic stick - any of the listed options is great as a warm-up.
Personally, to warm up, I like to beat a punching bag for 5–10 minutes before training: the blow is developed and the body warms up perfectly. During warming up, the pulse should normally fluctuate between 120–160 beats per minute. For a normal warm-up, 3-6 minutes of intense cardio is enough.
This pre-workout warm-up stage is designed to generally prepare the entire body for intense exercise. The blood accelerates, the pulse quickens, you can safely move on to the next stage of the warm-up before training.
Rotations

After warming up the body, it's time to work out the joints. I don’t know exactly why, but somehow it happened that it is customary to do joint warm-ups according to the top-down principle. I think there is no point in reinventing the wheel, why not stick to the good old sports tradition and warm up consistently from the neck to the ankles? If you don’t know which specific muscles you plan to work in training, you need to warm up all the joints before each strength training. Only non-target joints that do not work during training, of course, are developed a little less, but those that work, on the contrary, take longer and more.
I hope that when you go to the gym, you know in advance what exercises you will do, and therefore you should know how you will do the warm-up in the gym. If not, then I would advise you to order an individual training program before starting training. Before each workout, you must rotate your hands, elbows, head, twist your body, rotate your lower back, and develop your knee joints. You can make it a rule to do hyperextension before each workout: this will help protect the most vulnerable part of the spine during training - the lower back. Be that as it may, joints wear out in any way during weight training. But the better you develop them, the less wear and tear there will be.
Stretching

Stretching before training prepares the ligaments and muscles for the load, making the muscles more elastic, and therefore ready for pumping. When training a muscle or muscle group, we first fill it with blood and see instant growth (more precisely, the illusion of growth) of this muscle: it fills with blood, becomes hot and inflated. And if the muscle does not have sufficient flexibility, then it will be able to accept less blood and, as a result, efficiency will be less.
So stretching, or in other words “stretching,” should be a necessary element of the warm-up before training in the gym. There is no need to be a fan; 3-5 minutes of stretching before training is enough. I will also publish how to stretch before training in the near future.
Special bodybuilding warm-up

Before each exercise, you need to do this exercise first with an empty bar, then with a weight half the working weight. And only after these two warm-up and warm-up approaches should you start training. In addition to the fact that this type of warm-up will help warm up the muscle, it will also increase blood flow in the muscle being trained, which will have a positive effect on its training.

You need to start not with hasty sudden movements, but at a slow pace, gradually increasing the pace and intensity of the warm-up. There is no need to shock our body, let it retract gradually.

The best heart rate for warming up is 90–140 beats per minute. I advise you to purchase a special heart rate monitor in order to correctly count your pulse. I have already mentioned the role of the correct pulse in the article about.

If it’s cold in the gym, you need to increase the warm-up time, because the muscles are colder, and therefore you need to warm them up better.

Cool down after training

After training you need to do a cool down! prepares the body for rest and recovery. As a cool-down, you need to do a few stretching exercises (again, we're talking about stretching), leisurely walk around the gym, or run on the track and then start walking.

The purpose of the cool-down is to normalize the pulse, get rid of shortness of breath and prepare the body for a smooth recovery. It would be a good idea to stretch the muscle worked during training, this way you will relieve yourself of soreness and disperse lactic acid from the muscles being trained. The cool-down only takes 5–10 minutes, and I will write about how to do it in one of the following publications. Of course, in order not to miss it, you need to subscribe to updates.

Warm-up before strength training video

Well, that seems to be all, dear readers. I hope after today’s article it is clear that warming up before bodybuilding is an integral part of bodybuilding, and we simply have no right to ignore it. So every time we come to the gym, we spend 10-15 minutes warming up and everything will be great!

Good luck friends, health and success in sports.

Was on the line Vitakha Okhrimenko !

19 comments on “Warm-up before training in the gym: how much and why”

When I went to the gym for aerobics classes for a while, we had both a warm-up and a cool-down.
I understand that bodybuilders go through all this a little more harshly, but training without them is harming yourself.

Natalya, warming up is necessary in any sport.
But it’s different for everyone and yet they are similar in some ways.

Warm-up is a very important element of the training process and should not be neglected under any circumstances. Although the majority, especially beginners, still do not pay enough attention to this, but in vain.
PS: You have a good blog Vitalya, it’s interesting to read.)

Hello, Sergey!
Yes, you can’t do without a warm-up, I’m currently preparing a whole series of publications on this matter.
I came to your blog and immediately added it to my bookmarks. The fire design is generally beautiful and memorable. The articles are well written and beautiful. The blog definitely has a future!
The template is how I assume professionals made it?

Thanks for the feedback.) Yes, the design and layout were done by smart people). Well, you probably already guessed whose school I study at.

PS: I also have your blog bookmarked), but I think I’ll also subscribe to updates so as not to miss anything interesting.)

You will need to make a folder in your bookmarks: “Borisov’s students” and periodically look at your successes with interest.
Didn’t Yulia make the template?

Her templates are very beautiful, talented girl!

In any sport, the value of warming up and cooling down is undeniable. Even in such an athletic event as running, warm-up and cool-down are also required. It would seem that run slowly at first - that’s all you need to do is warm up. But no, it is imperative to warm up the body, bring the pulse to the required value, and then, in addition, be sure to perform muscle stretching exercises. This is necessary so that during further training loads the body can more easily engage in work, and there will be no injuries in the muscles that are already prepared for heavy loads. The same goes for the cool down. Duplicate information from the blog author. my namesake Vitaly, I won’t.
Vitaly, this is my first time on your blog. I really liked everything - both the design of the site and the information you publish here.
I subscribe and promise to be a frequent guest.
Thank you!

Oh, I’m glad to see such a colorful character on the blog as Vital’s grandfather (namesake, by the way).
Thank you for your flattering review, thank you for your quality comment.
I really liked the way your blog is designed, the only good piece of advice I can give is: work on your link profile. Your blog is spammed, with many links to low-quality resources. At a minimum, this is a bad ranking, and at the maximum, AGS is possible.
Well, that’s right, I’ve grown wiser from an experienced mountain. In general, it’s very nice to meet you. You can rest assured that I will also periodically and constantly drop by your blog and pick up some tips and information for myself.

Vitaly, thank you very much for your flattering review too. I immediately “take the bull by the horns.” Tell me, please, where, using what service, I can see how spammed my blog is and how to see these links to low-quality sites? I seem to have been doing this for several years, but I’ve already forgotten. I slow down a little.

Vitaly, orienteering competition. More specifically, marked distances. It was necessary not only to mark these distances in the forest, but also to mark each of them with ribbons of different colors. For example, age group A (18 years and older): blue ribbons - distance length 6.2 km; group B (15 - 17 years old): purple ribbons, length - 4 km; Group C (14 years and younger): red ribbons, 2.8 km.
Usually we carry out “marking” along the ski track, in which case it is easier to mark. But now there was snow only in certain areas, so we had to mark on foot and more often, especially in snow-free areas.
In the spring. In summer and autumn we hold orienteering competitions mainly in a given direction and sometimes also by choice.
Well, I briefly told you about some types of orienteering.

An interesting direction in life. I’ll be honest, I’ve never heard of orienteering before. Thanks for clarifying

Even before sex there is a foreplay warm-up))