4 Essential Elements of Warm Up Before Every Workout

Warming-up is a vital part of every exercise regimen. The term ‘warm-up’ refers to an act of conditioning the body muscles and joints, for an athletic event or a rigorous workout schedule. Cold muscles are incapable of absorbing shock or sudden impacts, and are hence easily susceptible to injuries.

Essential elements of correct warm-up techniques before a workout

Experts have defined the correct warm-up techniques to help you prepare physically and mentally for the exercises, as well as to prevent injuries to the body. According to them, every warm-up exercise should follow four main principles of FITT (Frequency, intensity, time and type).

Frequency: Every session of aerobic, strength training and stretching exercises should be preceded by proper and sequentially correct warm-up exercises.

Intensity: How intensely should the warm-up be done? A warm-up should start with movements of lesser intensity, gradually increasing it to match the rigors of the main workout. The greater the workout intensity, longer should be the workout schedule. Generally, experts include all the large muscle groups of the body in a warm-up session. However, aerobic and endurance workouts need lesser intensity warm-ups than speed, strength and weight lifting workouts. A perfect indication of the appropriateness of your warm-up activity is when you have raised the first signs of sweat on your body.

Time: How long should the warm-up activity last? Humid climatic conditions require at least 6-10 minutes of warm-up, whereas colder climates require a minimum of 15-20 minutes of a warm-up session.  Another indicator is your breathing level. Your warm-up exercises should continue till your breathing level gets heavier than normal, but not as heavy as during the actual workout.

Type: What kind of activities is suitable for a warm-up session? A warm-up session can comprise of a medium to low intensity workout, or a totally different exercise schedule. A warm-up technique is deemed to be appropriate as long as it increases the heart rate, and flexes all the relevant muscles to be involved during the exercise regimen.