Warming up, stretching and cooling down correctly are fundamental, yet often overlooked in parts of any fitness routine.
Here at Trium fitness, we emphasise proper warm-up, stretching and cool down poses in the fitness routines and workout sessions we offer. While these components to training are basic, many people tend to overlook and skip over a proper warm-up, stretch and cool down program. Starting a workout with “cold” muscles may lead to injury, and we need to avoid that. It is important to remember that a warm-up routine is not the same as a stretching routine. Each workout should start with a warm-up, stretching routine before going into your fitness routine and ending with a cool-down — and that goes for true beginners, seasoned pros, and everyone in between.
It is important to note that warming up, stretching and cooling down goes hand-in-hand, and here are some benefits listed to help you understand its importance!
Warm-Up Benefits
1. Warming up prepares you mentally, increasing motivation and focus.
A dynamic warm up (e.g. lunge twists, leg swings, etc) helps to raise your body temperature while increasing blood and oxygen circulation throughout your body. In this manner, your mind is more aware, and attentive, allowing your body to be more adaptive, therefore improving performance.
2. Warming up helps to lubricate your joints.
Warm up poses helps to increase your range of motion by heating the synovial (lubricating) fluid in your joints, preventing any cracking or popping of joints.
Stretching Benefits
1. Stretching is a great way to increase flexibility
A good stretch helps to release the tension in your muscles, and also minimises our range of motion in the joints. The increased flexibility allows your movement to be more fluid.
2. Stretching helps to prevent injuries.
Stretching has been proven to help increase blood flow to the muscles. This increase in flow brings with it a greater nutrient supply to muscles, thereby reducing muscle soreness and helping to prevent and speed recovery from muscle and joint injuries.
3. Stretching helps to correct postures.
Stretching helps to ensure correct posture by lengthening tight muscles that pull areas of the body away from their intended position. This can be achieved under the guidance of simple yoga postures and routines, offered in Trium Fitness by our very own professional instructors as well.
Cool Down Benefits
1. Cooling down helps to restore your body’s rates and rhythms.
Just as you take time to warm-up before you train, you need to make the effort to cool-down, as well. This gives your body, heart-rate, and blood-pressure a chance to resume the normal rhythms, gradually and gently. This may also prevent feelings of dizziness or nausea that can accompany extremely intense workouts.
2. Cooling down helps to prevent muscle soreness.
Cooling down poses helps to flush lactic acid away from your muscles and out of the body swiftly. Lactic acid is a normal byproduct of muscle metabolism, but it can irritate muscles and cause discomfort and soreness. Cooling down helps prevent muscle cramps and soreness by allowing the muscles to lengthen and return to a normal state faster than they would if you had not cooled down. If you stretch properly, that will limit muscle soreness greatly. It also helps to prep your muscles for your very next workout!
With that, it’s time to hit that fitness routine the safe and correct way with proper warm-up, stretching and cool down! Let’s get the feel-good endorphins flowing!