Don’t forget the beginning and end of your workout! I know many of you do it, because I see you do it. I see you rush into your workout with no warm up and race to the shower still panting with no cool down or stretching. You might think that if you only have 45 minutes to work out that you’re better off skipping the warm up and cool down to use every minute you can to burn calories. *Loud Buzzer Sound* Wrong! By skipping your warm up and cool down you are potentially hurting your workout performance and recovery. On top of that you are at a greater risk for injury if you have not warmed up properly and aren’t stretching regularly. We want your heart working hard when you’re in the Clinic, but we’d prefer it if your heart rate and blood pressure returned to normal levels before you hike back to the office, so cool down is important here too.

Now that I’ve disproved your logic for skipping warm up and cool down time, let’s talk about what you should be doing and why. When you come in for a workout your muscles are cold. Well not really, but they aren’t flushed with warm blood like they are during and after your workout. A full body warm up with some light stretching is the ideal way to start any workout whether it’s a run or a weight lifting session because it increases warm blood flow to all muscles in the body. This increase in blood flow decreases muscle stiffness, eases movement, and increases energy delivery to the tissues that are about to need a lot of it. You are much less likely to strain a muscle if it has been pre-warmed; it’s the “cold” tight muscles that get hurt most often and it’s usually within the first few minutes of exercise. Not only are you less likely to injure yourself if you’ve warmed up, you’ll feel better and perform better during your workout. A warmed muscle contracts easier, uses energy more abundantly, recovers more quickly and sustains intense, repetitive exercise more so than does a cold muscle. So warm them up before you jump into the workout!

OK so now you know you need to warm up, but why should you cool down and stretch down? Hopping right off the treadmill and hitting the showers after a hard run doesn’t allow for the large amount of blood in the leg muscles to disperse.  Lightheadedness and even loss of consciousness can occur due to this pooling of blood in the extremities. Just as it is important to spend a few minutes warming the muscles and bringing more blood to them, it is just as important to spend a few minutes cooling the muscles and allowing the extra blood to move back out. This helps remove metabolic waste products, such as lactic acid, from the muscle tissue. After cooling down, spend a few minutes to stretch muscles that are sore or tight. Stretching can be a very relaxing, stabilizing activity and is the perfect way to bring your body back to resting levels before you leave the gym. Stretching muscles facilitates the delivery of fresh blood and nutrients to the tissue and can help to reduce muscle stiffness, soreness and tension.

Even if you have to cut 10 minutes out of your workout to be able to warm up, cool down, and stretch, you need to make that change or add 10 minutes to your workout time to realize the full potential of your exercise efforts. Talk to your trainer about adding a full body warm up and cool down routine to your workouts!

Live Well,

Marc