Warming up before a workout has several distinct benefits. However, warming up incorrectly can actually hinder your performance. So what works and what doesn’t?

Warming your muscles up before you begin a physically taxing sport or exercise prepares you both physically and mentally for the task at hand. Going from zero-to-sixty in six seconds only works for a car. Try that in a human body and you’ll tear muscles and injure joints.

An effective warm up has some key elements that work together to minimize injury. The main focus is to prepare both your mind and your body for more strenuous activity. Your warm up will increase muscle temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate. All of this increases the oxygen and nutrients delivered to the muscles to prepare them for activity. Warming up also primes the nerve to muscle response rate improving your performance.

Traditionally athletes do some activity to raise their body temperature and then they start stretching. Doing things in this order actually allows the mind and body to switch off from a physical activity. You’ll be starting your sport cold.

Believe it or not stretching should be done separate from your exercise routine, or at the very least at the end. Static stretching can actually overstretch a muscle or muscle group and it will become too flexible, setting the athlete up for injury.

Warm up activities structured to the specific exercise are a crucial part of any sport and shouldn’t be over looked. Injuries can be prevented when athletes consider the state of their muscles before placing them in over drive.

Warm ups should start with a sport specific warm up. Runners would begin by walking briskly moving into a jog and then their routine running intensity. Cyclists would begin by warming up on a flat surface before attempting hills. Those doing step aerobics can begin by walking briskly through the facility and then climbing a few stairs.

You’ll get the most from your work out routines by using the appropriate warm up to your sport. You will decrease your rate of injury, improve your performance and decrease your post exercise soreness. Warm ups, although often over looked, are a necessary part of any good exercise routine.