A successful exercise session commences with an appropriate warm-up. Engaging in warm-up routines can enhance the advantages of your workout and potentially decrease the risk of injury.
But what exactly constitutes a warm-up exercise? And what’s the best approach to warming up for optimal success in your workout? We’ve got the solutions.
What Is a Warm-Up Exercise?
Typically, a warm-up routine serves to elevate your heart rate and ready your joints and soft tissues (comprising muscles, ligaments, and tendons) for the impending workout, as stated by Kathy Doubleday, DPT, who serves as a cofounder and clinical director at Physio Ed. This company specializes in offering expert medical advice and tailored fitness programs for older adults in Ojai, California.
Warm-up exercises commonly fall into distinct movement categories, specifically aerobic, flexibility, and mobility.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, aerobic exercises involve utilizing multiple major muscles in a continuous, repetitive motion to increase heart rate. Walking, jumping jacks, and light jogging are examples of aerobic warm-up exercises.
As outlined by the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA), flexibility exercises facilitate passive stretching of soft tissues, allowing for the appropriate range of motion. Concurrently, mobility exercises, as noted by ISSA, enhance joints’ capability to actively move through their entire range of motion.
Warm-up exercises often encompass a combination of these categories. Dynamic stretches, frequently integrated into warm-ups, serve to raise heart rate, mobilize joints, and stretch muscles. “Dynamic stretches involve movements with an expanded range of motion to loosen the muscles and enhance blood flow,” explains David Chesworth, an exercise physiologist and program director at the Hilton Head Health wellness resort in South Carolina. The Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) lists examples such as leg swings, walking lunges, and torso twists.
As the term suggests, warm-up exercises are ideally performed before a workout. The selection of exercises and their duration varies based on the planned workout. However, warm-ups typically endure 5 to 15 minutes, as suggested by Chesworth.
