Okay, I have to apologize here.  I’ve blogged about this and that and forgot to add in the great stuff about what “I’m about”…which is fitness, nutrition and health!  So here I just want to take a few minutes and talk about the all important “warm up” before stretching.

A lot of people think stretching is overrated, but I don’t.  I think it’s a necessary part of exercise or sports.  But I also have come to believe that warming up before the stretch is very important.  These two things may seem like the same thing to some, but actually are two different things.  Warm-ups do what they say.  They warm the body up, that’s to say they increase the bodies temperature.  You body temperature will rise and with that, your muscles, ligaments and tendons will also warm up.  You can just picture that more blood is flowing to these areas, to your muscles.  You become more elastic and less tight which has the added benefit of reducing the chance of muscle pulls or strains.

To do this, …warm-up, …you have to get your muscles moving.  I recently have completed several rounds of Insanity and this is where this technique really hit home with me.  For nearly ten minutes we do three sets of cardio interval work, 3 minutes each.  Slow at first, then moderate, then at a higher speed.  The variety in this warm-up for me includes, running in place, jumps, lunges, knee bend kicks, squat jacks and few others at different times.  The body is moving and the muscles are warming up.

After this you can feel free to do some stretching.  You will have broken a sweat during the warm up but not to the point of fatigue or breathlessness, so ten minutes is plenty of time for the warm up.

I hope that you consider this the next time you go out to exercise or play some kind of a sport and remember to do it “before” you stretch.

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