Okay so you warm up every time before you work out? Good, but the question is, are you doing it right? Here are some signs that you might not so that you can correct them the next time you go for exercise. Because you can’t just do it, but you have to do it right, otherwise the purpose is lost.
1. You Don’t Really Understand Why It’s Necessary
Don’t just mindlessly stretch before every workout. Really focus on performing it because this helps prepare your entire body instead of just jumping right into the workout. Your muscles need to receive nutrient rich blood, your joints require lubrication to be able to last an hour of exercise and avoid injury. Warm Up is what gives your muscles and joints those things that they need before any kind of workout.
2. Rushing Through It
Warm Up is just as important as the workout itself. So, just as you need to complete an exercise to the last count, you need to do the same to your workout. Don’t cut it short thinking you’ll get the same benefits in the actual exercise. Know that your body can’t go from 0 intensity and blast into 10; you have to ease into it. And you do that by warming up for at least 15 minutes before going right into your work sets. If you do this, you’ll notice that you’re more flexible and you don’t feel as strained to exercise.
3. Not Preparing The Entire Body
If you think that just because your workout program for today is focused on your legs so you don’t have to warm up your upper body, think again. Remember that even though you’re only training a specific part of your body, you entire body would still have to exert effort for you to perform those exercises. So don’t leave out any part of your body when it comes to warm ups. Work from your feet up. Every part of your body needs to be prepared especially if you’re using weights.
4. Not Preparing The Mind
What your mind can conceive your body can achieve. That remains true whether you look at it figuratively or literally. You can’t walk into the gym half asleep; otherwise you either won’t get the most out of the workout or suffer unfortunate injury because your mind isn’t where your body is. We all know how the lack of concentration can affect the outcome of whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish. So before you storm into the workout, visualize how you want it to go about and your body will definitely follow suit.
5. You Don’t Focus On Flexibility
Trying to work out without loosening up your entire body is a perfect recipe for injury. That’s because you fail to gradually increasing the heart rate and circulation as well as loosen the joints and increase blood flow to the muscles. Stretching every part of your body, though you’re only training one part, makes your posture so that you maintain correct form every time as well as maximizes your ability to do a specific workout. Always stretch and hold each muscle group for 20-30 seconds each.
6. 10 Reps With The Bar
When you workout with weights, you have to consider how heavy you’re planning to tackle. If you plan on handling hundreds of pounds for numerous reps, lifting 45 pounds for 10 reps as your warm up doesn’t cut it. That weight and repetition is not enough to prepare your body to take on your target weight. You need to perform at least 3 warm up sets so that you muscles can get a better feel of what’s coming. Work your way up to the weight you want to lift. This way, it won’t shock your muscles when you attempt to do that hundred-pound deadlift or bench press.
Exercising is important to maintain overall health, however if you fail to warm up properly or worse don’t do it at all, you’re setting yourself up to some serious injury. What happens then is that instead of enjoying the health benefits of working out, you end up suffering injury because you fail to prepare your muscles and joints for it. Good thing there are a lot of chiropractors in Singapore who are well experienced and knowledgeable when it comes to dealing with sports injuries along with related injuries. So in case you get injured while working out, consult a chiropractor right away to avoid making your condition get worse by leaving it untreated.