subject: How Important Is Stretching And Warming Up Before Exercising? [print this page] No matter whether you've had a gym membership and have been attending regularly for years, have only just started to work out a few times a week or haven't yet in fact began to work out but are looking at how you should be doing so, it's highly likely that you'll have read or been told on several occasions that you need to stretch and warm up before exercise.
Preparing your muscles for the workout that they're about to be put through, by properly stretching and warming up prior to any exercise session, you can guarantee that you'll be able to work out to the best of your ability, for the longest time possible and that you'll also significantly reduce the risk of becoming injured whilst exercising.
Whilst most people will be aware that they have to stretch and warm up their muscles before exercising, the problem that very often arises is that as they don't know the importance of the process, they don't fully appreciate it, what it can do to your body both if you do and don't do it and also how they can effectively stretch and warm up.
And it's because of this why a lot of people forget to do it or don't do it properly.
The best way to think about the importance of stretching and warming up is to think of it in another way, such as going to work.
When you go to work at the moment, chances are you arrive at the building and ease yourself into the day, whether that's by making a cup of coffee and seeing what e-mails you've received or just taking the first 20 minutes easy.
Whatever you do, you know what you have to do throughout the day and that you're going to get paid at the end of it.
Now imagine if one day you walked to walk as you normally do, expecting to fall into your standard routine, but everything had changed - the people, the setup and it was a completely different industry.
You're expected to work from the moment you walk in the door right through until you leave at night without any planning or preparation and know exactly what you're supposed to be doing, performing to your best for the full working day.
Chances are within a matter of minutes you'd have a splitting headache, be completely disorientated and just want to stop and run back home.
And that's exactly how your muscles feel if you don't stretch or warm up before exercising.
They're used to walking around, getting in and out of cars, walking up stairs and lifting bags of shopping, but any form of exercise is a complete shock to the system - they aren't prepared for the extra work that they're going to have to do as they're not used to it and because of this they struggle to perform.
Everyone needs to stretch and warm up before exercising, irrelevant of how regularly you work out. Spend 10 or 15 minutes carrying out some basic stretches and warming up exercises and you'll perform better, for longer and won't feel sore the following day.
