If you ever have tried to work out at least once in your life, you would know the importance of a good warm up. People who dismiss warming up find out soon enough why warming up is essential prior to engaging in any physical activity. Watch an sport event and you will see the players stretching and doing other similar easy exercises before heading out into the field or court. Be in basketball, soccer, table tennis, badminton, or any other sport, warming up applies.
So why is warm up that important? Different physical activities make use of different muscle groups. Our muscles, especially when they haven�t been in use for quite some time, are essentially �cold.� That is, they aren�t that flexible yet. When a person jumps right into strenuous physical exercise, the cold muscles are subjected to extreme stress. What happens is that there is a very high chance of straining or even tearing muscular tissue. This is most often the reason for injuries.
What a warm up routine does is to gently ease the muscles into the condition for more strenuous activities. Warm up routines target specific muscle groups and allow them to be more flexible. A good warm up routine would cover the neck and shoulder muscles down to the ankles. The arms and back are also critical targets of warming up.
So before you exert any effort into that favorite sport of yours, spare 15 to 20 minutes for warm up. Your body will surely thank you for it.
Originally posted on December 9, 2006 @ 9:47 am