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| Why Warming Up Before Exercise is Essential! | Warming up…not the most exciting thing to talk about is it? Most people prefer to talk about how to get faster or how to generate more power, but warming up is an essential element of any martial artist’s workout.
Many people repeatedly ignore going through the warm up stage before working out, not knowing the consequences in doing so.
Think about it, you wouldn’t start your brand new sports car and thrash it straight away. You let the cars idle for a bit to get the fluids moving around the engine and get everything up to operating temperature. It’s the same with an athlete’s body; you need to prepare it for the strenuous activity to come.
So what happens when you warm up?
Several changes takes place in the body once physical activity is initiated. Your respiratory rate, blood flow, and oxygen and nutrient levels delivered to the cells increases. The rate of increase should be regulated in a steady pace to prepare the body for the physical stress that exercise will demand.
If one foregoes this priming procedure, the body will function less efficiently and the workout will produce less quality results. Warming up preps up the nervous system, heightens mental awareness and alertness, and loosens up joints and muscles to make them less prone to injuries. Warm ups jump starts the fluid located in the joints, minimizing the risk for wear and tear of the muscles. It gives the heart a suitable period to adjust and pump up blood and nutrients into muscles.
This is especially vital for older martial artists, since they have tissues that are less supple; they have joints with less fluid, and weaker hearts.
So you may be asking “how do I warm up properly?”
Initially, you can start with any activity that enables your heart to beat faster. This is the general warm up. You can simply walk and jog, or if you have cardiovascular equipment available to use, such as a rowing machine or a bicycle, you can use that.
Start at a gentle pace, and then slowly increase the pace until heart beat rate increases and the body temperature rises. You should note that the pace is based on your own fitness level. You should break out into a light sweat so that you are left energized and loose, but not exhausted.
After you’ve worked up a light sweat, which usually takes about 3-5 minutes, or sometimes a bit longer if you are working out in a cold environment, You can move onto dynamic stretching, as this will help with your range of motion and mobility, particularly in the spine, shoulder, and hip areas.
Remember it is not the aim of this stretching to increase your flexibility. You are simply trying to work up to your current maximum range of motion.
The kind of stretching depends on the type of activity you plan to engage in. As Martial Artists the recommended kind of dynamic stretching would be the ones that mimic the movements that you will be performing, leg swings in preparation for kicking is the most obvious example.
Light sparring can also be done in the quarter of the normal speed, or just simply do your movements in slow motion to start off with.
Remember, you should only do stretching if your muscles are already warmed up through the general warm up. Also do not bounce while stretching. Although you are performing dynamic stretching it should be performed in a controlled and smooth manner. If you try and over do it by bouncing it could lead to a contraction that can result in muscle tear or pull.
After warming up and proceeding to the main workout, remember that it is equally important to cool down. If you suddenly stop exercising or lifting weights, blood will gather in your muscles and oxygen and nutrients will be blocked without the blood flowing through the muscle. This contributes to the muscle soreness you will feel after a hard workout, so cooling down should have the same importance as warming up as it will help reduce post workout muscle soreness.
I will cover weight lifting warm ups in another article, as I know that as martial artists many of us tend to weight lift as well, but in the meantime remember all the necessary precautions not only to maximize the workout, but also help to keep you safe and healthy.
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