 |
Warm Up Exercises are so Important!The reason we do warm up exercises is to: a. Prepare the joints for the work to come. b. Prepare the cardiovascular system for the work to come by raising the body's temperature and blood flow to the muscles. c. Help prevent muscular soreness and injury. This segment should include mobility exercises using a whole body approach. The reason we do warm up exercises The warm up segment should include: a. flexion, extension and rotation of the neck. b. flexion, extension, abduction and adduction of the shoulder girdle. c. flexion, extension, rotation of the shoulder joint. d. rotation of the trunk. e. flexion and extension of the knees. f. Plantar flexion and dorsi flexion of the ankles. REMEMBER this segment should include both stretching exercises and aerobic exercises to increase the activity of the heart and circulatory system. Stretches should flow rythmically and not jerky in any way. The aerobic warm up should gradually increase in intensity and avoid raising the heart rate too rapidly. Check out the warm up exercises here. The illustrated stretching exercises on this website will help you find the right body position for the particular stretch. I cannot say it enough, the warm up and stretching are a very important part of your fitness program. If you don't do these exercises then you may find that you develop an injury and cannot attend any calsses for a while. A few years ago I did this and I can tell you that it was very unpleasant. I had overtrained and was not doing the correct stretching exercises, due to not having very much time and yes I paid the price. I wasn't able to train for about 3 months. So please follow these guidelines and do your stretches religiously to avoid my mistake.
|
