Role of Warm Up and Cool Down In Training For Injury Prevention

It is really important to initiate your training or exercise with ten minutes of warm-up. warming up means that you are preparing your body for physical exertion. It gradually boosts the cardiovascular system by increasing body temperature and blood circulation to all muscles.

This results in decreasing any muscle soreness and lessening the chances of injury. It also helps in increasing flexibility, which will help with other exercises as well and you will be ready to tackle heavy-duty machines at the Gym.

After completing a training session, five to ten minutes of a good cool down helps to bring back the body to its normal functional level after vigorous activity or exercise. It is done by slowly reducing the intensity of activity with low-intensity exercises or gentle stretches.

A Cooldown helps to bring the body temperature back to normal. Also, stretching helps in reducing lactic acid production, which can lead to muscle cramping or stiffness. Stopping quickly without a  cool-down can result in lightheadedness, dizziness, nausea, or fainting.

Role of warm-up and cool-down in heart pumping

• Warmup increases the heart rate which increases the blood flow which results in more oxygen to reach the muscles.

It also activates the connection between nerves and muscles which ultimately improves the efficiency of movement.

• Similarly, Cooldown also consists of 5-10 minutes of exercises at a reduced level and intensity, which allows the heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing back to normal at a slower pace.

Following are some warmup and cooldown exercises or stretching, which can be done for 5 to 10 minutes before and after your training session.

Warmup Exercises

There are two types of warm-ups.

General warmup

General warmup consists of light physical activities for full body muscles’ activation. Some of them are like walking, jogging, swimming, stationary bike, skipping, or light aerobic exercises.

Specific warmup

The specific warmup is when you are just focused on the areas of the body that needs to be trained.

Some specific warm-up exercises are:

Arm circles, hips, circles, lunges, jumping jacks, high-knees, jumping rope, static or dynamic stretches.

Cool down exercises

Three Parts of effective cooldown are:

• Exercising at a reduced intensity, paired with deep breathing exercises.
• low intensity, long-hold static stretching  which include:

Quads stretch, hams stretch, back stretch, chest stretch, shoulder and arms stretch, core stretch.

• Rehydrate and Refuel: water intake is the best way to rehydrate and cool your body down from the inside and out. Drink enough water to replace the fluid loss during exercise.

Role of stretches in cool down

The best time for static stretching is after doing your training or exercise. Static stretching has benefits which include relief from muscle cramps, improve joint range of motion, decreased risk of injury, and reduced delayed onset of muscle soreness.