Warm-Up, Stretching & Cool Down

Along with aerobic fitness and strength, flexibility is also an important component of total body health and wellness. It has been traditionally believed that performing warm-up exercises that include stretching can help avoid injury during the subsequent activity. Although this belief may not be completely true, a wellplanned warm-up, cool-down and stretching regimen are important aspects of every training session.

Warm-Up
Start Your Runs Strong

The main purpose of warm-up is to ready the body for the subsequent activity. It assists the heart, lungs and muscles to prepare for the intensity of exercise and to ease the body through the transition between rest to exercise. There are many forms of warm-up. Calisthenics, stretching and other forms of stationary exercise are popular. The best form of warmup is doing your planned exercise activity only much more slowly for the first few minutes of the session. For example, you may want to start your run with a brisk walk and a slow jog. Tennis players often warmup playing at the service lines rather than using the full court. Start your activity on a smaller scale. How do you know if your warm-up has been long enough? Are you sweating yet? Perspiration is a sure sign that warm-up can end, and your exercise session can begin.

Cool-Down
Recover With Purpose

The purpose of cool-down is the exact opposite of warm-up. Incorporating a planned cool-down at the end of your exercise session assists the body in the transition from exercise to rest. It allows the heart to adjust to the decreased intensity more slowly and can prevent laboured breathing at the end of higher intensity exercise sessions. Blood flow can slow more naturally with a cool-down, which will prevent the pooling of blood in the exercising muscles and thus prevent any dizziness or nausea that can result from suddenly stopping particularly high-intensity exercise. The optimal length of the cool-down period is dependent on the intensity and duration of the prior exercise with the long, more intense sessions requiring an extended cool-down. A cool-down period of 5–10 minutes should suffice for almost every workout. Like warm-up, the bulk of the activity done during the cool-down should be the same as the exercise session, only slower or on a smaller scale. Finish your run with a slow jog or a walk.

Stretching
Mobility & Ease

Stretching is always best done when the muscles are warm. If your preference is to stretch before you work out, then be sure to do a full warm-up first (10 minutes). On the other hand, stretching can become a part of an extended cool-down. If improved flexibility is your goal, then stretching while your muscles are cooling from a training session will give the best results. Never sit down and stretch too soon after your workout Stretching is only recommended after an appropriate cool-down.

Stretching should be done slowly without bouncing. Stretch to where you feel a slight, easy stretch (not pain). Hold this stretch for 20 seconds. As you hold the stretch, the feeling of tension should diminish. If it doesn’t, ease off slightly into a more comfortable stretch. This easy first stretch readies the tissue for the developmental stretch.

After holding the easy stretch, move slightly farther into the stretch until you feel mild tension again. This is the developmental stretch, which should be held for 20–30 seconds. This feeling of stretch tension should slightly diminish or stay the same. If the tension increases or becomes painful, you are over stretching. Again, ease off to a comfortable stretch. The developmental stretch reduces and will safely increase flexibility.

Hold the stretch at a tension that feels comfortable to you. The key to stretching is to keep relaxed while you concentrate on the area to be stretched. Your breathing should be regular. Be sure not to hold your breath. Don’t worry how far you can stretch in comparison to others–increased personal flexibility is a guaranteed result of a regular stretching program.