Warm ups are a crucial part of any exercise program you undertake. The benefits of a good warm up ensures that you prep the target muscles that you wish to work and that you mentally prepare yourself by practising the form for the exercises you will complete during your session.
Imagine walking into the gym on a brisk Winter morning and going straight into lifting a heavy weight with cold, unprepared muscles. By doing this, you may put yourself a few minutes ahead of schedule, but you are also putting your muscles and body at a very high risk of injury. This is one of the most important factors that a warm up can really help you with – Reducing the risk of injury!
You want to find a balance between too little, which still places you at risk of injury, and too much, which can fatigue your muscles before the session has even started.
Too little:Warm ups that last 5 minutes or less aren’t going to be ideal in preparing you for your session. Firstly it takes over 5 minutes (with rest breaks) to actually go through the exercise form and technique at a comfortable weight that will not only warm up the target muscle but also your joints. On top of this, ideally you want increase your heart rate and move around to help promote more blood flow to your muscles.
Too much:If your warm up takes an average of 15 minutes+ then this can affect your ability to perform at your best level during your session. Warming up for a long period of time will fatigue you and your performance will drop. Also, another problem with a long warm up is the increase in the overall session time. Everyone is time poor these days so a long warm will just increase the time it takes to complete your session.
Ideal:The best suggestion for the length of a warm up is 5-15 minutes max!
An ideal warm up would include a low-moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise, some dynamic stretching, and exercise form/technique working at increasing the weight over 2-3 sets on your first exercise.
Example of a warm up for a lower body workout:
1: 3-5 minutes low-moderate cardiovascular exercise. EG: Spin bike, cross trainer, assault bike
2: 2-3 minutes muscle activation exercises. EG: Banded crab walks, glute bridges, bodyweight squats, leg swings
3: First exercise form/technique work. EG: Pick you first exercise of the workout. Set 1= 40-50% of your first set starting weight. Set 2 = 70-80% of your first set starting weight.
Every warm up may be slightly different. You will know when you’re ready to start the session.
Don’t just jump straight into your workout or sacrifice your warm because you’re time poor. Always prioritise your warm up to maximise your success in the session.
The warm up weight for your first exercise vary from person to person. Don’t worry about this too much, just ensure that there is a gradual increase to your second or third warm up set from your first working set.
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