Many bodybuilders, powerlifters and serious weightlifters consider a warm up a waste of time and a bore. It may not be fun but is an important aspect of weight training and should not be overlooked. Below is a short list of reasons for you to warmup before your weight-training regime.
A proper warm-up should make you sweat a little, but not get tired or fatigued. The goal is to get the heart rate up and increase blood flow throughout the body. The most important reason for a good warmup is to help prevent injuries. If that is not reason enough take a look at the list.
1. Increases the removal of lactic acid accumulated during previous workouts.
2. Increases the efficiency of contracting muscles. Some light stretching is good to get limbered up.
3. Research suggests neuromuscular coordination is enhanced by warming up.
4. Improves coordination of individual exercises. (doing a warmup set of an exercise before hitting the heavy weights)
5. Increases heart rate and speeds blood circulation.
6. Increases oxygen reserves to the muscles.
Be careful not to warm up too long because you don't want to use up your energy for warming up instead of getting an intense workout. A good rule of thumb is to elevate your heart rate, sweat lightly, and have an elevated body temperature. 10-15 minutes on the treadmill is good to get your body warmed up. Perform one light set of each exercise before you start adding heavy weight to the exercise. This will help with your form.
Stretching is another important part of the warm up, and a good idea as part of your cooling down phase. Stretching will help you get a full range of motion for the exercises that you are about to perform. Stretching also helps after the workout by stretching out the muscles that you just pumped up.
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