Health. Why is it essential to warm up before exercising?
Would you like to start jogging or your fitness session right away? Yet, you know it's important to warm up first. But why exactly?
Jumping, stretching, moving in all directions... Depending on the sport you plan to practice, the warm-up will need to be adapted. Photo Adobe Stock
A warm-up before a workout involves a series of low-intensity exercises designed to get the body moving. The muscles, of course, but also the joints.
Jumping, stretching, moving in all directions... Depending on the sport you plan to practice, your warm-up will need to be adapted. For jogging, the legs are more important. If you plan to swim or surf, your upper body should not be neglected.
In any case, it will take 15 or 20 minutes of warming up for it to be effective.
Photo Adobe Stock
"Warming up increases body temperature, optimizes performance, and reduces the risk of injury," explains the Montreal Heart Institute. Indeed, performing a more intense exercise than usual without proper preparation puts you at risk for tendonitis, muscle tears, or even strains.
More specifically, warming up your body "allows you to increase the blood volume that irrigates the muscles, which improves the supply of oxygen and energy substrates to them," continues the Quebec Institute.
This "also increases the degree of physical and neurological activation. This allows the body to perform muscle contraction more quickly and improve the efficiency of the contraction-relaxation cycle of agonist-antagonist muscles during exercise (which contract and stretch, editor's note) ."
Finally, you will achieve “better elasticity of muscle tissue, which provides a better functional range of motion to perform an activity.”
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