Done correctly, warming up and cooling down can help reduce the risk of injury, improve athletic performance, and increase desired fitness results.
Many times if progress is not reflected correctly in the results, you must think that you may be making a mistake when warming up and cooling down. Do not hesitate to rethink your routines because sometimes taking a step back can result in several forwards in the medium term. That is why we teach you 7 mistakes of the warm-up and return to calm that can ruin your training and prevent you from achieving your long-awaited goals.
7 heating and cooling mistakes
1. You avoid heating
Warming up is an essential part of preparing before starting your workout, and while it's a bit tempting to skip it, it can be more harmful than beneficial.
Before riding a bike, running, swimming, or using the elliptical, you should start the activity slowly and easily. To do this, increase your heart rate steadily rather than abruptly. Depending on the activity, warm up your ankles, shoulders, wrists, and spine with simple movements.
A good warm-up includes range-of-motion exercises, dynamic stretches (involving movement), and balance activities to prepare your body for exercise. These types of activities increase your heart rate, body temperature, and pump more blood to your muscles.
Any exercise requires a warm-up and a good stretch before getting to work. However, many people do not dedicate the time that this activity deserves. You have to focus on all areas of the body, from the head to the feet.
2. You do static stretches at the beginning
Static stretching involves moving a joint to the end of its range of motion (ROM) and holding that position for 15-60 seconds, considered an essential component of a decades-long warm-up to improve performance.
However, at present, this type of stretching is recommended to be done after training and without noticing pain. If we do it before heating the muscles or abruptly we can cause an injury.
Instead of doing static stretches, try dynamic stretches. This means moving the joints without resistance through all their ranges of motion rather than maintaining a stable (static) position. Circling your arms and ankles are examples of dynamic stretches .
Save the static stretch for after your workout, otherwise you are signaling your muscles to relax rather than activate.
3. You don't spend adequate time warming up
The warm-up before training serves to protect our muscles and increase their capacity. We arrived in a hurry, stressed, with just enough time to train and we forgot the importance of it. This simple fact can lead to avoidable injury or discomfort.
An effective warm-up should last between 5 and 10 minutes, and the more intense the activity you are going to do, the longer the warm-up should last.
You must give enough importance to this pre-workout stage, as your muscles need enough time to circulate the blood and loosen.
4. You don't calm down
As at the beginning of the activity, after training you have to stretch again, in this way the body relaxes and the heart rate gets used to the new state.
During an intense workout, your body goes through a series of stressful processes involving muscle fibers, tendons, and ligaments that get damaged enough to get stronger again. That's why a sudden stop immediately after your workout damages your muscles and your heart.
As at the beginning, you have to end progressively. Failure to do so can cause more than one muscle pain, so it is necessary to stretch again and take care of the stability of the heart rate.
5. You don't stretch properly
During a workout, lactic acid builds up in your muscles , often causing muscle pain, stiffness, and fatigue. These are the most common reasons why people stop exercising and skip workouts; However, there is a way to reduce this sensation of pain: stretching. You should take adequate time to stretch after exercising.
Not doing exercises after your training can cause you to feel quite strong, so it is necessary to stretch again and take care of the stability of the heart rate.
Stretching must always be after training and without noticing pain. If you feel it, stop and speak to a qualified professional, such as a doctor or physical therapist, who can better assess the situation.
6. You start at a very high intensity
Starting to train suddenly and at a high intensity can cause irreparable damage to your body, because it is not prepared and what you can do is cause an unnecessary injury.
Full throttle without hot muscles can cause muscle tension or even tear.
You must give the importance it deserves to warm up. Do dynamic stretches that include the exercises you will do, but in a light and much slower way so that the body anticipates what you are going to do and be prepared for the routine.
7. You don't get enough rest
Rest, like food, are key to physical development.
When we sleep is when anabolic hormones are released, such as growth hormone, and more testosterone, which are the hormones that benefit us the most in terms of physical development.
Sport should never be taken as an obligation, especially when you feel tired as a result of work and your personal life. Nor should you try to reach exhaustion. That is why it is better to practice exercise after a restful sleep, where we find ourselves with charged batteries. In addition, it is during sleep that the body repairs muscle fibers damaged during training and replaces dead cells.
conclusion
There are many benefits that exercise brings to the body, and to do it correctly you must know how to warm up and calm down properly .
You don't need to spend much more time exercising either: half an hour a day more warming up and cooling down in total between the two of you will be enough to get good results.
References
- McShane, SJ. 9 Warm-Up and Cooldown Mistakes Wrecking Your Workout. For Livestrong. [Revised June 2019].
