Before you start any strenuous physical activity, you want to make sure you’re warming up beforehand. You’re essentially getting your body ready for the physical task at hand.
Like starting up your car’s engine on a cold day, you want to let it warm up to let the engine run as smoothly as possible, the same goes with your body. Warming up the body allows activation of muscles, opening up of joints and priming of the nervous system for the task at hand, which will minimize the chance of injury.
It’s a common thought that to warm up you want to hold long stretches in the muscles to get them “loosened up”, however studies have found this is actually counterproductive. A more effective approach is to incorporate dynamic stretching and light resistance/ body weight work to “wake up” the muscles and nervous system. For example, before a run rather than holding a 30sec stretch for your hamstring, swing your leg back and forth to incorporate the dynamic stretch which will not only wake up the leg muscles but also open up the hip joint at the same time.
Another way to warmup can also be incorporating simple rehab exercises. For example, if you’re heading to the gym to work on your legs a great way to warm up would be to perform some bridges and birddogs to “wake up” the glute and core muscles before heading to the bigger weights during your session.
All sports teams undergo a warmup before their games, and for good reason, and so make sure you incorporate warming up to your next exercise session. This will ensure your body is moving more effectively, whilst decreasing your chance of injury!