Importance of Warm-Up & Cool Down Before and After Exercises
By Nmami Life Editorial 21-Dec 2020 Reading Time: 2 Mins
Warm-up and cool-down exercises are often alleged to be done pre and post the particular workout rather than jumping headfirst into an intense session and revoking one abruptly. Exercises like cycling, jogging, climbing stairs, and so forth can all be done as a part of your warm-up or cool-down routine. Read on to understand the importance of warming up and cooling down before and after exercise.
Importance Of Warming Up Before Exercising
- Improves blood flow and oxygen efficiency
- Improves performance
- Reduces risk of injury
- Reduces stress on the circulatory system
- Prevents blood pooling
- Helps recover
Warm-up exercises boost blood flow to skeletal muscles and open up blood capillaries. Muscles need oxygen to function as you do exercise, so increasing blood flow sets muscles up for the extreme activity to follow. Warm-up exercises also release oxygen from the blood more readily, and this is often positive because while exercising, your muscles need higher amounts of oxygen.
Warm-up exercises also help your muscles contract and relax faster. Warming up raises blood heat, which results in improved nerve transmission and muscle metabolism, further resulting in efficient muscle performance.
Apart from improved blood flow, warm-up exercises also help loosen joints. Both these factors make your muscles less likely to urge torn, ripped, twisted, or injured in any way during your high-intensity workout. By performing warm-up exercises, you furthermore may become mentally prepared for exercising and focus more accurately on your training session, thereby reducing the risk of injury. That specialization in the workout also helps you improve your technique and form.
Importance Of Cooling Down After Exercising Your muscles stop contracting when you stop exercising abruptly which may cause blood to pool within the lower part of your body. With reduced pressure to pump blood back to the guts and brain, you’ll feel lightheaded, dizzy or maybe even faint. After an intense workout, the body builds up lactic acid from within. The body needs time to release and take away carboxylic acid, and cooling down exercises can aid this process, thus speeding up recovery. Further, it may lead to muscle soreness and Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is often alleviated through simple cool-down exercises like stretches.
Over to you:
All in all, finding time for normal workouts — plus warming up and cooling down — are often challenging. But with a touch of creativity, you’ll probably fit in. We all are now cognizant of the importance of warming up & cooling down before and after exercises so why not keep this as a priority and lookout of our overall health and fitness.
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