Category — Stretching

So how to perform a warm up correctly, well a good warm up consist of about 5 minutes of a good steady pace cardiovascular activity such as a rowing machine, jogging, recumbent bike, or elliptical. Any of those activities will suite you just fine and I’m sure you’re already wondering what is the reason for doing five minutes of a cardio activity. Well the reason for engaging in a cardiovascular activity is to increase the core temperature of the body. In doing this, you will stimulate your heart and lungs and lubricate your joints as well because there will be an increase of secretion of synovial fluid.

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1. Raise heart rate and warm up muscles doing light physical exercises like running.

You can do running, jogging, jumping jacks or any similar low/medium intensity exercise. Leg muscles are the biggest muscles in human body so by doing exercises that involve them you will get warmed up faster. But remember – only light exercises.

2. Increase the range of motion in your joints by doing light joint mobility and stretching exercises.

Use circular motions and work your joints from the top of your body to the bottom. Start with neck and end with feet circling. Perform each motion for 10-20 reps. If you feel any pain – stop immediately.

3. Get your body ready for the specific exercise you are going to do – long jumping athlete will perform light jumping exercises etc.

Every sport requires specific exercises to warm up properly.

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Before any workout you need to take a few minutes to perform a proper warm up. Most people, if they warm up at all, make do with some light cardio and/or static stretching. While this is better than starting your workout cold, many experts believe that a Dynamic warm up is much better for your body as it can help enhance your perfomance and more effectively prepare your muscles, joints, and tendons to the upcoming workout.

A dynamic workout should be tailored specifically to the sport activity or workout that you’re about to do. For instance, a rower will focus on exercises for his or her upper body while a runner will make sure to get the heels and ankles, and calves warmed up and ready for the jog ahead.

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The body is flexible. It is supposed to be flexible. You must be able to bend and reach that something you dropped on the floor. You must be able to zip the back of your favorite dress on your own. You must be able to reach that book you need to read at the top shelf.

These are simple activities. Nothing grand about them, you merely stretched out a bit. However, if there are difficulties in doing such simple motions, then you have to stretch your limits. You already need a stretching program.

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This short article looks at some of the tips, tricks and helpful hints you can use to help prevent sports injury and do-away with stiff, aching muscles & joints. It’s been put together to answer some of the more common questions we get regarding stretching and sports injury, and details a number of useful sports injury prevention techniques. I hope it proves useful to you.

Overcoming & Preventing Sports Injury

If you’re involved in the health & fitness industry, whether it be participating in your favourite sport, coaching, training or just keeping fit, you’ll know how annoying and debilitating a sports injury can be. In reality, when you have a sports injury you’re actually losing on two fronts. Firstly, you’re losing simply because your body has been hurt and now needs time and care to repair itself. And on top of this, you’re also losing the time you could have been putting into training and improving your sporting ability.

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We all know that well-balanced diets include the different nutrients we need to maintain health and well-being. But did you know that your exercise program needs to be well-balanced, too? There’s three types of exercise to include in your work-out diet.

Aerobic Exercise

Aerobic exercise burns energy and oxygen, through continuous movement of the largest muscles in your body (your thigh muscles). Aerobic activities include bicycling, swimming, jogging, and (a great one for beginners or those who are recovering from illness) walking. If you’re just starting, try 10 minutes a day four days and increase as it feels comfortable until you’re exercising 30 to 60 minutes. Some people find that adding variety to their program (a new route every day; alternating classes and stationary biking) keeps them motivated.

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Your muscles ache from a good stretch. This is quite normal and is part of the process. Stretching has seemingly been with us and particular with athletes since the beginning of time.

A very key point to good stretching is to hold the stretch for at least seventeen seconds. This is a pearl of wisdom gleaned from a ballet teacher a few years back. She said that any stretch under 17 seconds was just not effective.

The 17 second rule is exceeded in the high intensity Bikram’s yoga where stretches are held for about 30 seconds. Don’t forget the high level of heat that is used in Bikram’s to extract that last little bit of stretch out of your muscles. An interesting twist that is not necessary to gain benefits from stretching. But, it can’t hurt, right?

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Now that we have a trainer, our next concern is to be equipped with the proper shoes and clothes, so our training experience can be maximized.

If your trying to create a great body you need to start with clothes and shoes that will make you feel good as well as look good! {The reason behind that is if you look and feel good you will tend to be in a motivated state of mind, and in this state we build consistency, this is where results come from.}

What kind of clothes and shoes do I need you may ask? You could spend a few hundred dollars for designer workout gear and that would make you feel and look better, but all you need is some clean and comfortable clothes and shoes. Most discount stores sell designer replicas at a fraction of the cost.

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