Cool-Down Or Warm-Up? You Decide
Facts about warm-up
Before taking part in physical training, sports competition, or vigorous physical activity, you must first prepare your body. With a warm-up, you can help prevent injuries and maximize performance.
What the warm-up does is increase the body's internal temperature and the heart rate so that more oxygen-rich blood can be pumped through the muscles. There is a decrease in the chances of getting injured when the heart, muscles, ligaments, and tendons are properly prepared for exertion and, vice versa the risk of injury increases unnecessarily when you do not go through a proper warm-up.
A warm-up should include some running-in-place or slow jogging, stretching, and calisthenics. Pay particular attention to warming-up the parts of the body that will become subject to the most stress during the conditioning activity and get all the major muscle groups involved in the warm-up. A major-league pitcher warms-up by throwing baseballs at increasing velocity after stretching all his major muscle groups. When it comes to the last couple of pitches, they are at game speed. A good model to adapt and follow is warming-up from the general to the specific like the major league pitcher.
A good warm-up should last five to seven minutes and should occur just before the sports activity or muscular endurance and strength part of the workout. The warm-up effect won't last more than five minutes or so. If the delay before the intense physical activity begins exceeds five minutes then perform at least one or more mini-warm-ups before starting. You have prepared your body for a more intense conditioning activity after a proper warm-up.
Cool-down
Regardless of the type workout, you should cool down properly after each exercise period. Even swimming needs a cool down. The cool down helps prevent pooling of the blood in the legs and feet and it also serves to gradually slow the heart rate.
The muscles squeeze the blood vessels through the veins during exercise. This helps return the blood to the heart. After exercise, however, the muscles relax and no longer do this, and the blood can accumulate in the legs and feet. This can cause a person to faint. With a good cool down, this possibility can be avoided.
When you are warming-up, then you specifically engaged the muscle groups that you would be using during the conditioning activity. You do not have to engage the same muscle groups again for the cool down. Walk and stretch until your heart rate returns to less than 100 beats per minute (BPM) and heavy sweating stops if you want a proper cool down. Most of the time, this happens five to seven minutes after the end of the conditioning activity.
If you want to check your BPM, then check the radial artery on your wrist (just above the base of the thumb), a carotid artery on your neck (just beside the Adam's apple), or by putting your hand over your heart. For 10 seconds, count the beats and multiply by 6 to get BPM.
Before taking part in physical training, sports competition, or vigorous physical activity, you must first prepare your body. With a warm-up, you can help prevent injuries and maximize performance.
What the warm-up does is increase the body's internal temperature and the heart rate so that more oxygen-rich blood can be pumped through the muscles. There is a decrease in the chances of getting injured when the heart, muscles, ligaments, and tendons are properly prepared for exertion and, vice versa the risk of injury increases unnecessarily when you do not go through a proper warm-up.
A warm-up should include some running-in-place or slow jogging, stretching, and calisthenics. Pay particular attention to warming-up the parts of the body that will become subject to the most stress during the conditioning activity and get all the major muscle groups involved in the warm-up. A major-league pitcher warms-up by throwing baseballs at increasing velocity after stretching all his major muscle groups. When it comes to the last couple of pitches, they are at game speed. A good model to adapt and follow is warming-up from the general to the specific like the major league pitcher.
A good warm-up should last five to seven minutes and should occur just before the sports activity or muscular endurance and strength part of the workout. The warm-up effect won't last more than five minutes or so. If the delay before the intense physical activity begins exceeds five minutes then perform at least one or more mini-warm-ups before starting. You have prepared your body for a more intense conditioning activity after a proper warm-up.
Cool-down
Regardless of the type workout, you should cool down properly after each exercise period. Even swimming needs a cool down. The cool down helps prevent pooling of the blood in the legs and feet and it also serves to gradually slow the heart rate.
The muscles squeeze the blood vessels through the veins during exercise. This helps return the blood to the heart. After exercise, however, the muscles relax and no longer do this, and the blood can accumulate in the legs and feet. This can cause a person to faint. With a good cool down, this possibility can be avoided.
When you are warming-up, then you specifically engaged the muscle groups that you would be using during the conditioning activity. You do not have to engage the same muscle groups again for the cool down. Walk and stretch until your heart rate returns to less than 100 beats per minute (BPM) and heavy sweating stops if you want a proper cool down. Most of the time, this happens five to seven minutes after the end of the conditioning activity.
If you want to check your BPM, then check the radial artery on your wrist (just above the base of the thumb), a carotid artery on your neck (just beside the Adam's apple), or by putting your hand over your heart. For 10 seconds, count the beats and multiply by 6 to get BPM.
