Why should I warm-up and cool-down for a sports or an activity?

Various health benefits are associated with performing an effective warm-up and cool-down before and after an activity. These include:

• Reduces the chances of getting injured
• Improves the performance
• Increases mental concentration
• Improves the overall fitness
• A much better recovery from the sport
• Improves flexibility of the body

Warm Up

What should be the duration for anyone to warm-up?

To prevent injuries from happening the preferred time for a good warm up would be prior to the activity. It should be around 15-20 minutes and must be carried out through various stages and activities.

Discovering the purpose of a warm up?

The purpose is to increase the heart rate and the body temperature that results in an increase in the blood flow to the muscles being used during the sport which improves the elastic property of muscles and joints also and help to mobilize the lubricating fluids around the joint areas to be used which ultimately reduces friction during movement.

How to warm up:-

As a general rule of thumb, a warm up should bring in mild sweating without the feeling of fatigue and should be done through four primary phases:

Warm up – Phase 1

The first phase of the warm up involves a low intensity cardio also called cardio-vascular exercise for example:- brisk walking, which increases the blood flow to the muscles of the body. Duration of this should be around 5-10 minutes.

Warm up – Phase 2

The second phase of the warm up involves a dynamic range of movement that exercise to loosen up the joints and muscles. This phase is focused on the specific body parts to be used in that particular sport. These warm up stretches include dynamic rather than static stretches as the latter tends to lower the heart rate and result in a cooling effect which are exactly opposite to a warm up.

Some examples are: squats, lunges, leg kicks, trunk rotations, arm rotations etc.

Warm up – Phase 3

The third phase involves agility, acceleration and speed drills activities, which prepares the body for fast dynamic movements required for that particular sport. This involves a gradually progressing at low intensity and building up-to higher ones which might involve strides that are formerly in straight lines and at low levels of intensities, then changes to brought in direction and progressing to greater intensities.

Warm up – Phase 4

This is the sport specific phase where the person needs to execute the skills involved in their sport, starting at low intensity and then progressing to greater intensity but gradually.

At the end, the person should perform their particular skill at 100% or around the same (or maximum efficiency) that would ensure to perform the desired skills in a competitive match at 100%.

Cool Down

Benefits of a cool down

An effective cool-down after the activity is very essential for the purpose of efficient recovery. Its effectiveness not only results in lowering muscle soreness in the following days to come, but also assists in reducing muscular shortening and injury prevention. Furthermore, an effective cool down will definitely improve performance for the next session.