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Warm up, pre workout meal, stretching, cool down and post workout meal are as important as the workout. Assuming, of course, that we are not desperate to lose fat to an extent that we won’t even mind getting injured or waking up with painful muscles.
Why is warm up so important?
Let me explain this by taking the analogy of our brain. When we have to solve any problem of mathematics, we first start from the basics like understanding the problem, figuring out theorems that can work on it and finally the rigmarole of calculations. So we come to the solution by proceeding in a step by step manner rather then deluging our mind with everything at one go.
This step by step approach warms up the mind to get to a solution in the end. Similarly, suppose one day you plan to lift 20 kg before you start your workout, and you just gotten out of bed. So you would definitely not be in the mode to lift 20 kg and quickly start doing the bicep curl. Yeah?
So if we just go to the gym and directly start our workout (lifting 20 kg), our muscles will be hit hard. We will end up stressing our muscles. It will be almost like the way our mind will get stressed if it is suddenly put into a very heavy situation. Won’t it?
Simply put, a warm up is done to prepare the body for a workout. Direct workout will stress the body, so never work out on cold muscles.
First make your muscles warm. When the muscles are warm, they become receptive to all the flexing and lifting that follows. Warming up the muscles is like getting a warm hug. You see we feel so receptive to any situation after getting a warm hug. Yeah?
Warm up also increases the body’s ability to work out better. Need an example? You try 10 suryanamaskars today. When you do the first one, you won’t we able to touch your toes in the forward fold, in the first step. But by the time you reach the 5th, 6th..10th, you would be able to touch your toes easily. Why? It is because your body has warmed up to that posture. Now if you add certain variations to this posture, like maybe hold weights in your hands while doing a forward fold, then your body will be more adaptive and less stressed. Agree?
How to decide what warm up to do before any workout?
Going by the above logic, a warm up should always be workout specific.
As in, if you wish to do bicep curls with 10 kg weights then warm up your bicep muscles first. Maybe by doing bicep curls with less weights or by doing any other exercise which flexes the bicep muscles.
Will doing squats and lunges as a warm up before bicep burls with 20 kg, help you reduce the stress of doing the bicep curls? The answer is a resounding ‘no’.
By doing simple squats and lunges, our bicep muscles won’t even get to know of any warm up.
So the best warm up would be something that sends some blood through the bicep muscles, that flexes the bicep muscles.
So before picking up 10 kg weight, it is better to do some rounds of bicep curls with less weight. Or maybe you do squat and lunges, while mimicking bicep curls, without any weights.
After sending enough blood though the muscles or making the muscles warm enough, just stretch them. Why? Stretching will loosen all the stiffness in the muscles. This never happens when we stretch on cold muscles. You want a toned, flexible body? Do this warm-up, stretching and workout thing.
You know why almost every gym makes you run for warm up before any workout? Because when we run, we kind of flex every muscle in our body and we send across blood to all the muscles in the body. So running, ‘not just any cardio’, is a good way to warm up.
Think of it: you have to do a bicep curl and in the name of warm up, you do cycling (cardio). How will that warm up your bicep muscles? Got my point?
Take aways on warm up
1. It should be workout specific. So whatever workout you have to do, as a warm up, do a lighter version of it. For example, before skipping, do easy skipping. Before lifting heavy, lift light. Before doing squats and lunges, do some running. Before running, do some brisk walking.
2. For HIIT, tabata or fartlek or any type of workout, you can use compound exercises for warm up. For example, burpees, push ups, knee ups, etc.
3. Suppose you have deadlifts or chest press or snatches in your workout. Then as a warm up, you can practice the correct way of doing these exercises with a PVC rod or lighter weight.
Warm up is to adapt the muscles to the upcoming workout and to reduce the stress on them.
