Best Warmup stretches before a workout in 2020
If you’re running short of time, you may feel tempted, so you directly jump to the workout and skip the warmups. But doing so can put more strain on your muscles and leads to increase risk of injury.
While preparing for any kind of exercise, whether it’s a cardio workout, strength training, or begin a team sport, it’s crucial to take time to ease your muscles into exercise mode. It will help you reap many fitness rewards.
Let’s have a look at the benefits of warming up and some of the warmup exercises that you can try before kick into your workout into high gear.
What are the benefits of warmup stretches before a workout?
There are several benefits linked with consistently performing a warmup routine before your actual training or workout session. At the same time,e many individuals think that taking the time to warm up as a waste of time, but that is entirely wrong!
The importance of getting in the habit of warming up stretches before the training routine (or any other exercise routine) cannot be overstated.
Warmup stretch exercises can help get your body to prepare for more strenuous activity and make it easier for you to workout. Some of the crucial benefits of a warmup are:
Improve your performance
Studies show that warmed up muscles can help you work out efficiently and effectively. Warmup allows more blood flow nourishes your muscles so they can quickly launch into any type of intense workouts.
Lower risk of injury
Warming up will improve your muscle elasticity and allow for efficient cooling, reduces the chances of accidentally hurting yourself or overheating during your workout or long-distance running.
Increased flexibility
Stretching is often considered as the best option for regular warmups. It increases blood flow to your muscles and makes our body flexible in both the short and long-term – always a plus when it comes to performing a workout properly.
So you should stretch if you’ve already completed your warmup so you can quickly move and workout.
Proper circulation of blood and oxygen
A good warmup will raise your body temperature and helps your muscles get enough blood. As your muscle temperature increases, more oxygen is available to your muscles that allow them to contract and relax more easily.
Better movement
With good warmup before a workout allows proper circulation of blood that helps you perform more strenuous tasks with ease. Having a more excellent range of motion enhances your performance with the full movement of your joints, and your body doesn’t strain out during your workout.
Less muscle pain and stiffness
Jumping directly to workout can throw you off completely! You require time to warm up your body and prepare mentally and physically before you begin your workout. Muscles that are more warm and relaxed help you move flexibly with less muscle strain or stiffness.
But before you begin with the warmup stretches before a workout, you should know the difference. Yes, you read it right! There is a difference between dynamic warmup and static stretching.
So let’s find out how they are different!!!
What is a dynamic warmup?
A dynamic warmup is performed before the workout routine. It helps to prepare your body to work at a higher intensity.
With dynamic warmup, you can focus on your actions as that of movements that you often do during your workout. The dynamic warmups before workouts help to boost your strength, mobility, and coordination that improves your workout performance.
For instance, squats, or light movements such as riding a bicycle or jogging are some of the movement-based stretchings.
What is static stretching?
Static stretching is another effective way to prepare your body for workouts. It consists of stretches that can help you lengthen and loosen your muscles and connective tissue. It is quite different from a dynamic warmup because the body remains still. Static stretching increases your range of motion and flexibility.
Some examples of static stretching are triceps stretches, hip flexor stretches, and lying hamstring stretch.
Warmup exercises
Warmup can be sport-specific, or you can even try any of the following warmup exercises that include a broad range of movements. Together, these exercises make your muscle ready for most workouts.
You can quickly begin with some basic version of each exercise before you move into a more challenging phase of the movements.
Squats
Squats are versatile exercises that target many of the muscles in your lower body, including your quads, hamstrings, and glutes. You can start with the first few squats easier by going down halfway, then you can increase the difficulty, so the last few repetitions are full squats.
Arm circles
Arm circles can be performed as warmup exercises if you are planning to go skiing or biking. You have to circle your arms from one side to the other to increase the tempo. It will help to build muscle tone in your shoulders, triceps, and biceps.
Take some deep breaths raising your hands in the air and exhale, bend over, and quickly move your hands towards the ground.
Twist Your Upper Body
To stretch your upper body, put your hands on your hips and then move your upper body from left to right and then again from right to left.
Rotate your upper body clockwise and then counterclockwise. It will strengthen your core and is essential for physical strength and balance.
Jumping Jacks
Jumping jacks leads to an increase in your heart rate, but before these, you should perform some stretching. The jumping jacks ensure that the heart pumps more blood to the muscles, so your muscles are less prone to injuries during workout.
Walking
Before a long run, you can take 5 minutes to walk to put your blood into motion. You can also perform the hands and upper body stretches while you walk to ensure full-body movement.
Jumping Rope
Jumping rope is not a usual warm up exercise, but if you have to go for an intense workout, then you can add this warmup. It will increase your heart rate.
Unlike the other types of warm-up exercises, only 3 to 5 minutes of jumping rope is enough to prepare your workouts. Ideally, you should perform this activity after a couple of minutes of stretching.
How long should a warmup be?
Try to spend at least 5 to 10 minutes for warmup. The more intense your workout, you have to go for the more extended your warmups.
Focus first on large muscle groups and then go for some of the movement warmups by putting on the best Bluetooth headphones while you’re exercising. For instance, if you are planning to go for a long-distance run, do so at a slower pace to get warmed up.
Final thoughts!
Although often overlooked, warmup exercises are a crucial part of any exercise routine. Your body requires some kind of activity to get your muscles warmed up before you switch to your workout.
Warming up can boost your flexibility and enhance your athletic performance also reduce the chances of injury.
You can either go for slower versions of the movements before your workout, as those the ones suggested above before you go for running or particularly marathon running. If you are getting ready for the cross country season, implement these into your training plan.
If you try some other warmup exercises, you can tell us in the comments. We would be happy to add your views to make this article more interesting and informative!
