Warming up is essential but too many times athletes get it wrong by doing too much or not enough. The purpose of the warm-up is to get your body ready for the activity you are about to do. If you are doing an intense activity, then you need to do a more intense warm up. The problem is if you do too fierce of a warm-up for the activity you are about to do, then you are wasting time and energy. If you do not do enough of a warm-up, then you are at risk of being injured. We need to find that healthy medium.
The purpose of the quick Warm up- As an athlete, I have seen warmups grow from not doing much at all to warm-ups that last more than an hour. I have come to realize that sometimes athletes can waste a lot of time warming up when it is not needed. Remember the purpose of any warm-up is to get your muscles warm and ready to perform whatever action you are about to do.
Purpose of the quick warm-up
- Hot days
- Muscles are already warm before activity
- Not much warming is needed
- Do only what is needed to be able to compete
- Sweating Hard and feeling your body and muscles are ready to go
- Once you are at this point, your body is ready to go
- Doing too much after this is wasting energy
- Not a very intense workout on that day
- People warm up a lot because they have a fear of injury
- Less intensity= less chance of injury
- Why warm up for the same amount of time as an intense day?
It might be weird at first to spend a bit less time warming up as it was for me at first but when I started to see how much time I saved it was well worth it. Athletes are infamous for complaining about being busy; well here is a great way to save you some time. Only do what is needed to make your body feel good on that day. If a longer workout is needed as you think crappy than taking the longer warm up.
The Purpose of the Long Warm Up- The longer warm-up needs to be at any times when things are inhibiting you from feeling ready to compete at the level needed for that day. It is as simple as that. If you are saying, you do not feel good yet than extend your warm up. At the same time if your body is feeling in such a way that no amount of warm-up will make it feel better than do not waste time and do the quick warm up.
Reasons to extend warm up longer
- Cold Weather
- The human body works better when warm, cold weather goes against this.
- Body Feeling Tight
- If another exercise or drill is needed to help you loosen up to feel good always go for it
- For example, if your hips are tight and you think some lunges will help, do it
- Coming off of an Injury
- Being back on any injury for the first couple weeks means take extra caution
- Kill Time
- If your workout depends on other people that take a long time to warm up, you better get good at stalling your warm
- Walk back slower between drills if you have too
Play around with the warm-up. The point is just to understand the point of the warm-up is just that to get your body warm, and ready to compete so do it. Remember to evaluate all the circumstances of that day than do what you need to. If all the conditions are right, then a quick warm-up is probably in store for you.
KHO Health was acquired by was acquire by 9INE POINT in the summer of 2019 and is now referred to as 9INE POINT Health.
