Should you warm up before weight training? – 4 reasons why you SHOULD!
Weight training, strength training, and other resistance based forms of exercise are becoming more and more popular with each passing day, and with good reason too. Resistance training helps to increase your lean muscle mass, it helps to improve your strength, it helps increase your stamina and endurance, it boosts your mental well-being and focus, and it just generally makes you feel better about yourself, especially once you begin seeing results.
The problem with weight training is that injuries can be pretty common and what’s worse is that they are often serious, sometimes even life threatening in fact.
What’s even more frustrating is that many of them can be prevented if the person training was to set aside 5 minutes before their workout, to go through a basic warming up and stretching routine.
If you’re guilty of weight training without warming up, here are four reasons why you may want to change your ways sooner rather than later.
Warming up helps to improve circulation
One of the main benefits associated with warming up is the fact that it helps to improve circulation of blood within the body.
Increasing your circulation helps the blood vessels to dilate slightly, allowing more oxygen and nutrient rich blood to be transported through them and delivered to the cells within our body, including those found within our muscles.
As more oxygen and nutrients are delivered to cells in our muscles, this makes our muscles more efficient, allowing them to work longer and harder before they begin to fatigue.
Warming up helps to improve muscle elasticity
Another great reason to warm up before working out is that warming up actually helps to improve muscle elasticity.
The basic stretches and exercises associated with warming up help to stretch the tiny muscle fibres contained within our muscles, before allowing them to snap back into place, only now with the added bonus of being more elastic.
This improved elasticity means that the muscles are more flexible, meaning you will be much more flexible which in turn will dramatically improve your workout, no matter which exercises you may happen to be performing.
Warming up prevents injury
Arguably the most important benefit associated with warming up is the fact that it has been proven to prevent injury from occurring during physical exercise.
The reason for this is that if you were to exercise without warming up, your muscles would be all stiff and contracted, making a muscle pull or tear far more likely.
Think of the muscle fibres in your body as a piece of string. If the string is pulled tight, it is far easier to rip and tear. If it is loose, it’s more difficult to tear as there is much more give. Warming up basically ensures your muscles are nice and loose rather than tense and uptight, making a muscle pull or tear far less likely.
It’s quick and easy to do
Finally, another great reason to warm up before working out is the fact that a simple warm up will last no longer than 5 – 10 minutes maximum, and only requires you to perform the most basic of stretches and exercises.
After your warm up you will find yourself far less tense, far more energised, and you’ll also find yourself far more nimble and mobile.
Setting 5 – 10 minutes aside before your workout doesn’t take much, and it could be the difference between you laying in a hospital bed needing surgery before being sidelined for several months afterwards, and you making fantastic progress in the gym and looking and feeling better than you ever thought possible.
The admin staff at Gym Geek are all gym rats who love to share their fitness advice and knowledge!