How To Complete An Effective Warm Up And Cool Down
We all know that we should be doing a proper warm up and cool down each time we workout but do we know what that should include? If you’re unsure of how to plan these, take a look at our advice below…
What should I include in a warm up?
Your warm up is your bodies chance to loosen muscles and joints in order to prevent injuries during your session. Usually warm ups last between 5 and 10 minutes, anything less than this is not really enough time to properly get the heart rate up and the body ready to train.
Here’s some ideas of what you could include in your warm up:
Cardio machines - machines are an easy way to get warmed up, we would recommend you use a light to moderate intensity and try to use a machines that warms up the muscles you will be targeting during your session.
Machine plus dynamic stretches - after your machine warm up you can add in some dynamic stretches, for example, using resistance bands to activate the muscles further or some yoga based movements to release the joints.
Dynamic Warm Up - this involved using a series movements (usually bodyweight) to activate from top to bottom. Some examples of movements you could include are:
Arm Circles
Leg Swings
Cat Cown
Squats
Planks to Downward Dogs
Just to name a few!
What should I include in a cool down?
A cool down is your body’s chance to release the muscles post workout, to lower the heart rate back to it's resting rate and to help prevent injury. Similar to your warm up, a proper and effective col down will last at least 10 minutes and just like a warm up, there is more than one way to cool the body down. so here are some ideas:
Cardio Machine plus Static Stretches - yes you can use a machine to cool down! You will be using a very light intensity, we usually reccomend a light walk on the treadmill or a light reistance on the cross trainer. You can follow this with a static stretches routine to finish.
Dynamic + Static Stretches - Dynamic stretches such as arm circles, hip rotations, thoracic twists can be nice for releasing the body post workout before you move into your static stretches for full flexibility. It’s important to include your static stretches as these are the stretches that aid muscle recovery post workout.
We recommend holding static stretches for 20-30 seconds.
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