subject: A Vital And Overlooked Part Of Muscle Building [print this page] A Vital And Overlooked Part Of Muscle Building
It's absolutely vital that you warm up properly before you do your weights workouts. Some folks overlook this facet of bodybuilding, but overlook it at your peril, because if you short change yourself in your warming up work, you leave yourself open to the risk of an injury, and worse case scenario, a permanent injury that means you have to give up bodybuilding.
There are two types of warming up - and both are very important;
1/ General warming up prior to your workout and
2/ Specific warm up sets before your work sets proper
This article looks at general warming up;
What you're trying to achieve is getting nice and loose and a bit of a sweat going before doing battle with the weights. You don't want to be absolutely worn out before you start working out for real.
At the very least, if you're pressed for time, make sure that you warm up the muscles you'll be training later on. I like to start with 3 sets of twenty slow squats done without weight.
Make sure you keep your form textbook when you do this - think of it as a chance to rehearse the movement before you do it with a barbell on your back.
It's also very important to make sure your lower back is well warmed up, especially if you're training legs that day.
Another thing you could do is maybe five minutes of gentle cycling on the stationary bike or the elliptical trainer if you have access to either of those things.
When you're nice and loose, try some gentle stretching - but not, repeat not before you're loose - it's dangerous to stretch a cold muscle.
If you're good at skipping that would be a terrific way to warm up.
The whole process should only take ten minutes or so. If in doubt, do more warming up than less - as you get more experienced you'll know what works for you.
As a general rule, as you get older you'll need more warming up work, and you'll need more warm up work in the colder months, or if you train in a drafty old garage like me!
