Functional Warm up and cool down ideas for your workout!

Traditional warm-ups of sitting and stretching are flawed. Below are the common mistakes that people make preparing for their workout and ideas on what to do in their place.

-Aerobic Activity Before Weights

• It takes only 10-15 seconds of muscular contractions to raise body temperature by 1ºC and a proper warm-up should raise body temperature by 1-2ºC (1.4-2.8ºF), just enough to cause sweating. That's it! In fact, simply going through the motions of any exercise is sufficient to supply blood to the appropriate working muscles. Just a few repetitions are all you need to really warm-up the muscles; aerobic activity is not necessary, and can zap valuable energy and time.
• Rehabilitation specialist, Paul Chek, states: "Resistance training induces specific stress to the muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints of the arms, legs and/or involved spinal structures. The loads are often high, requiring significant activation by the nervous system. Although aerobic exercise activates the cardiovascular system and warms the body, this type of warm-up is only specific to the working joints."
  
  • Think about it, how specific is a stationary cycle as an upper body warm-up?
• Instead of aerobics, perform some basic movements before every workout. Start slow and shallow and gradually increase speed and range with each repetition
  
  • 5-10 reps per movement are all you really need.
  • Example warm up exercises:
    
    • 1. Squat
    • 2. Split Squat
    • 3. Toe Touches
    • 4. Waiter's Bow
    • 5. Side Bends
    • 6. Trunk Twists
    • 7. Arms Vertical
    • 8. Arms Vertical Alternating
    • 9. Arms Horizontal
    • 10. Arm Circles
    • 11. Wrist Flexion/Extension
    • 12. Wrist Circles
    • 13. Head Tilt
    • 14. Head Rotation

-Static Stretching Before Weights

• Static stretching prior to weight training will sedate your nervous system and make you weaker. Numerous studies reveal that muscle stretching will inhibit maximum strength and power. In fact, acute static stretching can decrease strength and power of the stretched muscles by as much as 5-30 percent for as long as 90 minutes. By then, your workout is over!
• Dynamic stretching, on the other hand, is useful to simulate the velocity of your training and will help rev up the nervous system in preparation for activity.
• The only time you should even consider static stretching before weight training is if you have some extremely tight muscles that, essentially, need to be turned off.
  
  • The law of facilitation is often recited when referring to these tonic muscles as they tend to rob the neural message during movement. For instance, if you experience rounded shoulders and you plan to work your back, it may be a good idea to stretch out your chest to generate greater range of motion when rowing or pulling.

-Too Many Repetitions

• In a specific, or related, warm-up, the goal is to prepare your central nervous system (CNS) for a highly specific task. You need to tell the body two things and two things only:
• What the range of motion and intensity (i.e. load) is that you will use during your work sets.
  
  • In essence, specific warm-ups provide practice sets where you can rehearse proper form and technique. Doing too many repetitions during any warm-up will increase lactate levels and decrease strength and performance. Research shows that there are better ways to increase strength during your workouts – the art is being able to apply that science to your training. Remember, the goal of a proper warm-up is performance, not fatigue!

-The Cool Down

• How — 10 minutes of slow walking on a treadmill is ideal.
• The cool down not only brings fresh blood into areas to help with lactic acid removal, it also brings your heart rate down to resting pulse quicker.
• A proper cool down also helps lower a raised heart rate down to resting heart rate safely.
• A proper cool down simply makes you feel recovered after feeling like a whipped puppy after intense exercise.
• It kick starts the recovery process as well.
• Getting the body and the life of your dreams is not just about consistent intense work outs.
  
  • During intense work outs you are tearing the body down, causing controlled micro tears in your muscles. You are also depleting your energy reserves.

If you have any questions about your warm up or cool down let me know!