{"id":13995,"date":"2012-05-16T10:46:19","date_gmt":"2012-05-16T15:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fitzness.com\/blog\/?p=13995"},"modified":"2014-10-29T10:23:05","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T15:23:05","slug":"revamp-your-warmup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fitzness.com\/blog\/revamp-your-warmup\/","title":{"rendered":"Revamp Your Warmup"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo Credit: Scott Ableman on Flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

A proper warmup prior to exercise seems to have fallen into a category with eating lots of vegetables, drinking plenty of water, and sleeping at least 8 hours a day. We all know how important it is, but it often gets ignored or overlooked. Watch the beginning of any sports match and you’ll see the players moving and stretching hours before the game. Obviously, an hour-long warmup is overkill before an average Joe’s workout, but a couple of shoulder swings and a half-hearted hamstring stretch won’t cut it either.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of ways to effectively warmup depending on what kind of exercise you are getting ready, but following some simple principles will allow you to tailor the warmup to match the workout.<\/p>\n

The purpose of a warmup should be three fold; loosen up tight muscles, get blood flowing through the muscle groups that will be trained, and to lubricate and warmup the joints that will be stressed by the workout. A proper warmup will reduce the chance of injury and actually improve your performance during the workout. It’s always a great idea\u00a0 to begin with a milder version of your “real” workout, followed by gentle stretching of the muscles which will be taxed the most.<\/p>\n