There’s often two distinct people in the gym when first starting their workout…those who jump straight into things and those who like to warm up appropriately before doing anything else. Although this can often play on things like the amount of time you have to workout, or whether you’ve already warmed up at home/jogged into the gym prior to working out. There’s some things to take into consideration on whether you should be warming up or not.
Age
Age can play a really big part in whether or not you should be warming up or not before doing your main workout. Our circulation decreases as we age due to the walls of our blood vessels naturally losing their elasticity. When blood moves slower through our bodies, our extremities are colder and get cold faster. Joints and ligaments can also show a lot more wear and tear as we age, therefore an adequate warm up should always be part of your routine in order to reduce the chance of any injuries.
Prep Sets
Warming up doesn’t just have to be what everyone thinks it is. It’s not always just a case of jumping on a bike or cross trainer to get the blood pumping around the body, another way of warming up could be by doing prep sets. Prep sets are basically a much lighter version of the exercise you’re about to do. So say for example your first exercise is chest press machine, you’ll start out using a super light weight, moving your joints and muscles through that particular range of motion before starting to add any weight in your main working sets. This is also a great way to get blood into that particular muscle group and again prevent injuries from going too heavy too soon before ligaments and tendons are ready for excess weight.
Note.
One of our newer releases allows you to add prep sets to your workout if you don’t want to go through a full stretching routine.
Injuries
Bit of a no-brainer this one..if you’re recovering from injuries, then warming up should definitely be part of your routine. Warming up and moving your joints through different ranges of motion is basically preparing your body to move and do things. If you’re stiff, cold and ligaments etc. are elasticated enough…you’ll often end up with a pulled muscle, knots or other joint issues.
Cardio
If you’re doing cardio first in your routine, then you’ll probably not need much more warming up afterwards. Machines such as the rower, treadmill and cross trainer are great full body movers that will pump blood around the body, get the joints moving and prepare you to go and lift weights after. If you do cardio at the end of a workout, then you may still need a warm up to begin.
Things to remember…
- Doing stretches should be done at the END of a workout not the start.
- Dynamic stretching or mobility work should be done at the START of a workout as you’re essentially moving your body rather than staying still holding a stretch.
- Preparing adequately will reduce the chances of injury and improve performance
- If you’re in an older age bracket, you may need a little longer to warm up adequately
- At the bottom of our search tab in the app, we have specific plans for warming up and mobility work
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