How Important Is Warming Up?

**ravadongon** · 07-13-2005, 05:36 AM

How Important Is Warming Up?

By Ravadongon

Everyone wants to make progress, but sometimes injury can haunt us and not allow us to make progress and instead send us backwards. The good news is the majority of injuries can be prevented from occurring. How may you ask? By preparing properly for all your workouts carefully and correctly. This means warming up and cooling down before putting your joints and muscles under the stresses of heavy resistance. Unfortunately these two processes are very often done incorrectly, unsubstantially and sometimes not done at all.

How important is warming up before a workout?

Warming up is very important before any workout, whether it be before a 100m sprint or before maxing out on bench press. But the question you may be asking is why is it important? The answer is because it prepares muscles and joints for greater levels of activity, and also primes CNS to fire. It also has numerous other benefits such as:

- Reducing muscle stiffness (which is directly related to muscle injury)
- Increases speed of contraction/relaxation of the muscles that have been warmed up
- Removes lactic acid accumulated during previous workouts
- Increases blood circulation to muscles
- Increases efficiency of oxygen usage by warmed up muscles (hemoglobin releases oxygen more readily at higher muscle temperatures)
- Neuromuscular coordination is improved by warming up before performing a movement

Does stretching help prevent injury and soreness? Could it make someone more prone to injury through over-training?

Stretching, when done correctly and properly, can assist in the prevention of both injury and soreness, as well as increasing flexibility. There are many types of stretching, such as static, dynamic, ballistic, passive, active and assisted. All serve their different purposes, but the two you should be most concerned with, in terms of your warm up and cool down for weight training and other similar activities are dynamic and static stretching, which I will talk about later.

Overstretching however is not a good idea. This will make you more prone to injury by overtraining and will consequently take you longer to improve your flexibility. Overstretching will produce miscroscopic tears (microtraumas) causing your musclar soreness, which will occur during or immediately after the stretch if severe, or a day or two later if minor. This can hinder your ability to recover quickly from a workout, so don’t over do it.

What types of stretches do you perform before a workout? Do you stretch you whole body or just the body parts you are working that day?

When stretching prior to working out, the best type of stretches to perform are dynamic stretches. These stretches reduce muscle stiffness, which is related to muscle injury. Dynamic stretches consist of controlled leg and arm swings.

Stretching during your workout is not necessary, just perform your warm up sets prior to each exercise. If you are going to stretch during your workout, don’t stretch the muscle you are directly using in the movement(s), stretch the antagonistic muscles e.g. when squatting, stretch the hip flexors, or when benching, stretch the lats. This has been shown to be of great assistance and can help improve your performance in the movement(s).

You are only required to stretch the body parts you are working on the day. However keep in mind you must know what muscles and joints you are working in the particular exercise(s), a lot of the time there are a lot more muscles involved than you think.

What stretching routine do you follow?

After a light jog, to increase body temperature (break a sweat) I will perform some of the following stretches, depending on what muscle and joints groups I am targeting on that day.

Pre Workout – Dynamic Stretching (10 swings per side)

- Basic Joint movement (flexion/extension/rotation)
- Shoulder Circling
- Arm Swings (Overhead/Down and back and Side/Front Crossover)
- Hip Circles/Twist
- Side Bends
- Leg Swings (Flexion/Extension and Cross-Body flexion/Abduction)
- Lunges
- Double Leg Ankle Bounce

Once I have finished my workout, I normally go for a light 5 minute walk to cool down, then perform the following stretches, again depending on the muscle groups that have been worked during my workout.

Post Workout – Static Stretching (10 seconds hold per side)

- Chest Stretch
- Bicep Stretch
- Upper Back Stretch
- Shoulder and Tricep Stretch
- Side Bends
- Abdominal and Lower Back Stretch
- Quadriceps Stretch
- Hamstring Stretch
- Calf Stretch

How important is the cool down? Does it affect muscle recovery? Soreness?

Cooling down decreases body temperature and will remove any waste products, such as lactic acid, from the muscles that are being used. The other benefits of cooling down include:

- reduction in the potential of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) occurring
- reduction of adrenaline levels in the blood
- reduction in the potential of dizziness or fainting occurring

If you cool down correctly then you will experience greater recovery and you will find you will not be as sore the day after your workout. The best way to cool down is to, first, go for a light walk for around 5-10 minutes after your workout. This helps reduce your body temperature and remove waste products such as lactic acid, from the muscles being used.

When stretching after training, the best types of stretches to perform are static stretches. These stretches help the muscles to relax and will increase their range of movement. Static stretching involves gradually easing into the stretch position and holding that position for a certain period of time. These are best performed after you have cooled down.

All in all, the cooldown process will assist your recovery greatly. You’ll find that you won’t be as sore the day after your workout and your muscles will be able to recover faster reducing your chances of overtraining and instead allowing you to make important progress.

Important Additional Note I: Warm-Up Sets!

Before you perform a heavily weighted movement, PLEASE do warm-up sets for your nervous system’s sake. Warm up sets will provide you with all of the above listed benefits and will be of great assistance in your preparation for working sets. But as with all things you have to do it right and with warm sets there are a lot of common misconceptions made by even the most experienced lifters.

A lot of people believe high reps will warm you up. This is wrong. Working at high repetition ranges will instigate your body to produce lactic acid into the blood. This significantly impairs the nervous system to operate high threshold motor units which are recruited during heavy resistance training. If you are operating in strength rep ranges (1-6 reps) or hypertrophy rep ranges (6-12 reps), then you should go over 6 reps in your warm ups.

Another common myth with warm up sets is that doing low set warm ups e.g. ten reps with the bar then jumping straight into the sets, is sufficient. This again is wrong. It is important you let your nervous system know what is coming and jumping from the bar to a triple figure weight is unreasonable and will not allow you to perform at your ‘true’ maximum, because your CNS is not prepared for this. So it is important to include at least 3-5 warm sets, sometimes more depending on how close you are working to your 1RM.

e.g. 1 You are aiming to do 4 work sets with 250lbs for 2-4 reps

Warm up set 1: Bar Only: 1 x 45lbs x 5 reps
Warm up set 2: 50% 4RM = 1 x 125lbs x 4 reps
Warm up set 3: 75% 4RM = 1 x 185lbs x 3 reps
Warm up set 4: 90% 4RM = 1 x 225lbs x 2 reps
Warm up set 5: 95% 4RM = 1 x 240lbs x 1 rep
Work sets: 100% 4RM = 4 x 250lbs x 2-4 reps

e.g. 2 You are aiming to do 3 work sets with 160lbs for 8-10 reps

Warm up set 1: Bar Only: 1 x 45lbs x 6 reps
Warm up set 2: 50% 10RM = 1 x 80lbs x 6 reps
Warm up set 3: 80% 10RM = 1 x 130lbs x 4 reps
Work sets: 100% 10RM = 3 x 160 x 8-10 reps

Important Additional Note II: Pain When Stretching…

If you are stretching properly you should only feel a mild discomfort in the antagonist muscle at the most. If you feel any significant pain or discomfort before, during or after stretching or athletic activity then it is important to identify the origin of the problem. Severe pain will normally point towards an injury of some sort, so if this occurs do not continue with stretching or exercising until you have fully recovered. Muscular pain can most likely be linked to:

- torn tissue (microscopic tears of muscle fibres/connective tissue - microtrauma)
- muscle spasms (decreased flow of blood to the active muscles causing protective reflex contractions)
- metabolic accumulation (overexertion causing waste products such as lactic acid to accumulate in muscles)

What are the best recovery supplements out right now? What is the most effective pre-workout supplement? Post-workout?

There are many supplements on the market that will help shorten the amount of time needed for you to recover from a workout. A few of these supplements may be ones you are most likely already taking:

Protein

Protein is known as the building blocks of muscle. Protein is plays a very important role in the recovery process as it constructs and repairs our damaged muscle fibres (a result of resistance training). Supplementing protein, is an easy way to get enough protein into your diet. Recommended times for taking whey protein (fast digesting protein) supplements are before and after workouts. Recommended times for taking casein and protein blends (medium to slow digesting proteins) are prior to sleeping.

Amino Acids

Protein is the building blocks of muscle, amino acids are the building blocks of protein. Amino acid supplements are composed of a useful blend of amino acids for the human body. Amino acid supplements are best taken in doses pre and post workout. Popular amino acid supplements are BCAA (Branch Chain Amino Acids) products and glutamine products.

Creatine

Creatine is known to increase the amount of ATP stored in muscles, providing us with more energy. It also has other benefits one which includes, improved recovery abilities. Creatine is generally taken pre workout, but is sometimes also taken post workout.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is generally renowned for boosting the immune system, and that alone is a good enough reason to take it, however it does have numerous other benefits useful to athletes. It strengthens bones and connective tissue as well as reducing the secretion of cortisol in the body, allowing muscles to recover better and hence grow. The recommended dosage of vitamin c per day is 1000mg, and should be spread out over the day into 2 servings.

Bibliography and Helpful Links

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/berardi51.htm - great article on how to warm up for different types of activites (weight training and athletic performances)

http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/warmup.htm - article on warming up and cooling down

http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/dynamic.htm - how to do dynamic stretches (pre workout)

http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/stretch.htm - how to do static stretches (post workout)

http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/injury.htm - article on injury prevention

http://www.cmcrossroads.com/bradapp/...g_4.html#SEC29 - different types of stretching explained

http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/recovery.htm - popular recovery supplements

07-13-2005, 05:36 AM	#1
ravadongon Audere est Facere Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Perth, Australia Posts: 372 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 7	How Important Is Warming Up? How Important Is Warming Up? By Ravadongon Everyone wants to make progress, but sometimes injury can haunt us and not allow us to make progress and instead send us backwards. The good news is the majority of injuries can be prevented from occurring. How may you ask? By preparing properly for all your workouts carefully and correctly. This means warming up and cooling down before putting your joints and muscles under the stresses of heavy resistance. Unfortunately these two processes are very often done incorrectly, unsubstantially and sometimes not done at all. How important is warming up before a workout? Warming up is very important before any workout, whether it be before a 100m sprint or before maxing out on bench press. But the question you may be asking is why is it important? The answer is because it prepares muscles and joints for greater levels of activity, and also primes CNS to fire. It also has numerous other benefits such as: - Reducing muscle stiffness (which is directly related to muscle injury) - Increases speed of contraction/relaxation of the muscles that have been warmed up - Removes lactic acid accumulated during previous workouts - Increases blood circulation to muscles - Increases efficiency of oxygen usage by warmed up muscles (hemoglobin releases oxygen more readily at higher muscle temperatures) - Neuromuscular coordination is improved by warming up before performing a movement Does stretching help prevent injury and soreness? Could it make someone more prone to injury through over-training? Stretching, when done correctly and properly, can assist in the prevention of both injury and soreness, as well as increasing flexibility. There are many types of stretching, such as static, dynamic, ballistic, passive, active and assisted. All serve their different purposes, but the two you should be most concerned with, in terms of your warm up and cool down for weight training and other similar activities are dynamic and static stretching, which I will talk about later. Overstretching however is not a good idea. This will make you more prone to injury by overtraining and will consequently take you longer to improve your flexibility. Overstretching will produce miscroscopic tears (microtraumas) causing your musclar soreness, which will occur during or immediately after the stretch if severe, or a day or two later if minor. This can hinder your ability to recover quickly from a workout, so don’t over do it. What types of stretches do you perform before a workout? Do you stretch you whole body or just the body parts you are working that day? When stretching prior to working out, the best type of stretches to perform are dynamic stretches. These stretches reduce muscle stiffness, which is related to muscle injury. Dynamic stretches consist of controlled leg and arm swings. Stretching during your workout is not necessary, just perform your warm up sets prior to each exercise. If you are going to stretch during your workout, don’t stretch the muscle you are directly using in the movement(s), stretch the antagonistic muscles e.g. when squatting, stretch the hip flexors, or when benching, stretch the lats. This has been shown to be of great assistance and can help improve your performance in the movement(s). You are only required to stretch the body parts you are working on the day. However keep in mind you must know what muscles and joints you are working in the particular exercise(s), a lot of the time there are a lot more muscles involved than you think. What stretching routine do you follow? After a light jog, to increase body temperature (break a sweat) I will perform some of the following stretches, depending on what muscle and joints groups I am targeting on that day. Pre Workout – Dynamic Stretching (10 swings per side) - Basic Joint movement (flexion/extension/rotation) - Shoulder Circling - Arm Swings (Overhead/Down and back and Side/Front Crossover) - Hip Circles/Twist - Side Bends - Leg Swings (Flexion/Extension and Cross-Body flexion/Abduction) - Lunges - Double Leg Ankle Bounce Once I have finished my workout, I normally go for a light 5 minute walk to cool down, then perform the following stretches, again depending on the muscle groups that have been worked during my workout. Post Workout – Static Stretching (10 seconds hold per side) - Chest Stretch - Bicep Stretch - Upper Back Stretch - Shoulder and Tricep Stretch - Side Bends - Abdominal and Lower Back Stretch - Quadriceps Stretch - Hamstring Stretch - Calf Stretch How important is the cool down? Does it affect muscle recovery? Soreness? Cooling down decreases body temperature and will remove any waste products, such as lactic acid, from the muscles that are being used. The other benefits of cooling down include: - reduction in the potential of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) occurring - reduction of adrenaline levels in the blood - reduction in the potential of dizziness or fainting occurring If you cool down correctly then you will experience greater recovery and you will find you will not be as sore the day after your workout. The best way to cool down is to, first, go for a light walk for around 5-10 minutes after your workout. This helps reduce your body temperature and remove waste products such as lactic acid, from the muscles being used. When stretching after training, the best types of stretches to perform are static stretches. These stretches help the muscles to relax and will increase their range of movement. Static stretching involves gradually easing into the stretch position and holding that position for a certain period of time. These are best performed after you have cooled down. All in all, the cooldown process will assist your recovery greatly. You’ll find that you won’t be as sore the day after your workout and your muscles will be able to recover faster reducing your chances of overtraining and instead allowing you to make important progress. Important Additional Note I: Warm-Up Sets! Before you perform a heavily weighted movement, PLEASE do warm-up sets for your nervous system’s sake. Warm up sets will provide you with all of the above listed benefits and will be of great assistance in your preparation for working sets. But as with all things you have to do it right and with warm sets there are a lot of common misconceptions made by even the most experienced lifters. A lot of people believe high reps will warm you up. This is wrong. Working at high repetition ranges will instigate your body to produce lactic acid into the blood. This significantly impairs the nervous system to operate high threshold motor units which are recruited during heavy resistance training. If you are operating in strength rep ranges (1-6 reps) or hypertrophy rep ranges (6-12 reps), then you should go over 6 reps in your warm ups. Another common myth with warm up sets is that doing low set warm ups e.g. ten reps with the bar then jumping straight into the sets, is sufficient. This again is wrong. It is important you let your nervous system know what is coming and jumping from the bar to a triple figure weight is unreasonable and will not allow you to perform at your ‘true’ maximum, because your CNS is not prepared for this. So it is important to include at least 3-5 warm sets, sometimes more depending on how close you are working to your 1RM. e.g. 1 You are aiming to do 4 work sets with 250lbs for 2-4 reps Warm up set 1: Bar Only: 1 x 45lbs x 5 reps Warm up set 2: 50% 4RM = 1 x 125lbs x 4 reps Warm up set 3: 75% 4RM = 1 x 185lbs x 3 reps Warm up set 4: 90% 4RM = 1 x 225lbs x 2 reps Warm up set 5: 95% 4RM = 1 x 240lbs x 1 rep Work sets: 100% 4RM = 4 x 250lbs x 2-4 reps e.g. 2 You are aiming to do 3 work sets with 160lbs for 8-10 reps Warm up set 1: Bar Only: 1 x 45lbs x 6 reps Warm up set 2: 50% 10RM = 1 x 80lbs x 6 reps Warm up set 3: 80% 10RM = 1 x 130lbs x 4 reps Work sets: 100% 10RM = 3 x 160 x 8-10 reps Important Additional Note II: Pain When Stretching… If you are stretching properly you should only feel a mild discomfort in the antagonist muscle at the most. If you feel any significant pain or discomfort before, during or after stretching or athletic activity then it is important to identify the origin of the problem. Severe pain will normally point towards an injury of some sort, so if this occurs do not continue with stretching or exercising until you have fully recovered. Muscular pain can most likely be linked to: - torn tissue (microscopic tears of muscle fibres/connective tissue - microtrauma) - muscle spasms (decreased flow of blood to the active muscles causing protective reflex contractions) - metabolic accumulation (overexertion causing waste products such as lactic acid to accumulate in muscles) What are the best recovery supplements out right now? What is the most effective pre-workout supplement? Post-workout? There are many supplements on the market that will help shorten the amount of time needed for you to recover from a workout. A few of these supplements may be ones you are most likely already taking: Protein Protein is known as the building blocks of muscle. Protein is plays a very important role in the recovery process as it constructs and repairs our damaged muscle fibres (a result of resistance training). Supplementing protein, is an easy way to get enough protein into your diet. Recommended times for taking whey protein (fast digesting protein) supplements are before and after workouts. Recommended times for taking casein and protein blends (medium to slow digesting proteins) are prior to sleeping. Amino Acids Protein is the building blocks of muscle, amino acids are the building blocks of protein. Amino acid supplements are composed of a useful blend of amino acids for the human body. Amino acid supplements are best taken in doses pre and post workout. Popular amino acid supplements are BCAA (Branch Chain Amino Acids) products and glutamine products. Creatine Creatine is known to increase the amount of ATP stored in muscles, providing us with more energy. It also has other benefits one which includes, improved recovery abilities. Creatine is generally taken pre workout, but is sometimes also taken post workout. Vitamin C Vitamin C is generally renowned for boosting the immune system, and that alone is a good enough reason to take it, however it does have numerous other benefits useful to athletes. It strengthens bones and connective tissue as well as reducing the secretion of cortisol in the body, allowing muscles to recover better and hence grow. The recommended dosage of vitamin c per day is 1000mg, and should be spread out over the day into 2 servings. Bibliography and Helpful Links http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/berardi51.htm - great article on how to warm up for different types of activites (weight training and athletic performances) http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/warmup.htm - article on warming up and cooling down http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/dynamic.htm - how to do dynamic stretches (pre workout) http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/stretch.htm - how to do static stretches (post workout) http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/injury.htm - article on injury prevention http://www.cmcrossroads.com/bradapp/...g_4.html#SEC29 - different types of stretching explained http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/recovery.htm - popular recovery supplements __________________ My Weight Training Log - http://ironmass.com/forums/showthread.php?p=112673 For Full Journal visit - http://forum.athletes.com/showthread.php?t=2466 or http://charliefrancis.com/community/...ad.php?t=11822.

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