Strength
Training Warm Up
From eDiets -
working with Howtobefit.com to improve your health and
fitness Do
you come to the gym, skip the warm-up and go directly to your weight program?
If you do, you're skipping what may be the most beneficial and crucial part of
your workout.
Generally speaking, guys, it’s you
we’re talking to! It’s not "macho" to do a warm-up. You know what
you're doing, and you don’t need a warm-up. Well, you couldn’t be
more wrong.
Why do a warm-up? When you're inactive,
(and I don’t care how many errands or chores you do), you aren't warmed
up.
Your blood is generally pooled at the
center, or core, of your body when you aren't performing an activity. The
purpose of the warm-up is to signal the body that you're going to perform an
activity and to pump the oxygen-carrying blood to the working muscles of the
arms and legs.
If you like to lift weights, you need the
oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood just as much as if you were in an
aerobics class. Not only does the blood carry needed oxygen to your working
muscles, it also helps transport the waste products, lactic acid build up and
carbon dioxide away from those muscles.
So, you didn’t do a warm-up... You
came to the gym, and being tough (and a guy), you went right to weight lifting.
You already know you need to get the muscles to fatigue to see benefit. After
all, no pain, no gain, right?
You do your reps and start to fatigue and
get a burn, so you put the weights down and think, "I’m doing well." Not
really.
Without the warm-up, your muscles are
lacking the fuels they need to effectively perform the exercises and reach
fatigue. Both lactic acid and carbon dioxide are not as effectively being
transported away from the fatiguing muscles. So, did you efficiently allow the
muscles to reach their maximum capabilities and perform the number of reps they
really could do? Probably not!
Add the warm-up, but not too fast. If you
perform a warm-up too quickly, your heart rate will rise rapidly in an effort
to supply the working muscles with oxygen. You’ll reach your
aerobic-anaerobic threshold far too quickly, and the effect will be almost as
though you skipped a warm-up entirely.
Do it right! Take the 5 to 10 minutes to do
a warm-up -- moving gradually at first and building up the pace as you near the
end of the warm-up. Now, you’re ready for your workout, and more
importantly, your muscles and fuel systems will perform nearer to their peak.
You’ll also find you achieve better overall results from your strength
program.
The cool down is equally important. It
helps relieve the strain placed on your cardiovascular systems when you
abruptly quit an exercise program. Take as much time as you did for your
warm-up to perform your cool down. It’ll do your body a world of good.
With six years in the fitness industry,
Jeff Dirgo is Fitness Director with Lifestyle Dynamics LLC, his own education,
training, and consulting business in New Jersey. Jeff is reaching out to assist
other fitness professionals. He holds numerous certifications including the
Master Fitness Specialist and Health Promotion Director certifications from the
Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research, and is certified by the American
Council on Exercise, and the American Academy of Health and Post Rehab Fitness
Professionals. |
