As military personnel we have to be ready to move and fight at the drop of a hat, so warming up in the morning before starting duties is a vital aspect of the day, especially if deployed to a hot spot. But, what is a proper warm-up and why do we do it?
Well for one thing it’s a good question and for another
thing, there is a very good reason for it. The answer is: “we warm up to
prepare our body’s ligaments and muscles to work in tandem with our joints
allowing them to take serious impact while pumping blood carrying amino acids
and oxygen to the muscles in strenuous manual physical output”.
That’s it, that’s the reason we warm up – it’s not to
“prevent injury” – you can have underlying injuries that you have caused elsewhere,
warm up properly and still get injured, but of course, proper warming up will
help minimize impact. We warm up to allow our body’s Motor and Rotary
Ancillaries perform.
If that confuses you, let me put it another way. An engine
needs to warm up before it will work at optimal strength. Your body is an
engine, make no mistake about it. Your heart and lungs are the epicenter of
that engine, your bones, joints, ligaments, tendons and muscles are its
ancillaries.
Your muscles give you the power you need to move.
Your tendons provide the bounce and spring for running,
lifting, throwing and doing anything functional at all.
Your ligaments connect the muscle tissue to the bones –
wrapping around your ligaments and giving them support and added power.
If your ligaments are not warmed up properly, your muscles
will not function correctly and neither will your tendons, irrespective of how
much blood you pump in or warm you think you are!
To warm up, you need to “limber up”! So that means before
you begin hitting the barbell hard or taking to the roads and smashing PB’s,
you need to prepare your body from head to toe, and ligament to muscle!
Loosening the ligaments up means the muscle has a greater
range of dynamic motion, thus providing greater range of performance and
ability to pump blood into the muscles, comfort in the joints while moving and performance
output.
Static stretching before training is not the way to go!
Static stretching is done after you have cooled down (heart rate has dropped)
and your muscles need lengthening to prevent tightness and pain.
Dynamic Stretching as people call it is a limbering warm up
cycle starting at the head and working your way down to your toes – there is a
cycle, it takes 5 to 10 minutes and it allows the blood to flow in its natural manner.
This means you are carrying oxygen to the muscles, but loosening the ligaments
up first.
As you near the end of each Dynamic station, you speed your
motion up. So Dynamic means that you are moving – not standing still – as opposed
to static stretching where you do stand still and hold your stretches.
Dancers, Yoga Students, Martial Arts Students and many
others that need power from their bodies to perform will do a dynamic warm up –
as do track athletes! Next time you watch a track meet on television, watch how
the athletes warm up, they won’t be standing still, they may incorporate some
ballistic stretching to bounce the ligaments out, but they will move around to
limber up.
A great way to warm up before a run or gym session involves
5 to 10 minutes of your time
--- Dynamic Warm up Sequence ---
Dynamic Warm Up.
– Head to Toe!!! Always warm up from the head down – this is how your
blood circulates and the brain sends its signals down – not up! Always warm up
starting with loosening your neck and shoulders – traps and delts.
Start:
Head 1 – Look up slowly, Look down Slowly, Look Left
Slowly, Look Right Slowly – repeat 5 times
Head 2 – From the centre,
rotate your head gently on its axis from left to right in a circle 5 times –
repeat in the opposite direction 5 times.
Shoulders 1 – Rotate your shoulders forwards 10 times,
Rotate your shoulders backwards 10 times: Keep your hands by your sides, try
not to assist the rotation by lifting, simply roll the shoulders at their
pivot!
Shoulders 2 – Arm Swings - Swing your arms in big circles forwards 20
times, and backwards 20 times.
Trunk Twists – Place arms in front of body at chest
height, gently rotate left and right a total of 20 times slowly controlling the
muscle as you do.
Pelvic Openers – lift your knee up to your chest and
at the same time rotate outwards – right for right, left for left and repeat on
each leg 10 times.
Lunges – Pulsing lunges; On both left and right leg,
10 each: Get into a lunge position, hold, push up off your heal, and then
return to a lunge position, repeat for a total of 10 on each leg.
Leg Swings – Place left leg forward, left arm straight
out palm facing down. Place right leg behind and right arm by side, swing right
leg straight up with big toe pointing upwards to touch palm of left hand. Do
this 10 times and repeat on opposite leg. Get your leg as straight as possible,
no bend in the knee.
Ham Stretch – from your pelvis, lean forward until you
feel a pull in your hamstrings and then lower your shoulders until your hands
touch the ground or your fingers touch your toes. Hold for 10 seconds. Do this
10 times.
Groin Stretch – stretch your legs out and get as low
as you can. Lean on to your left knee and keeping your back as straight as possible,
stretch out your adductors and groin, holding for 10 seconds. Perform on
opposite side, and do 10 on each leg.
Shake out your legs and arms and your ready to
commence training. You’ve just gently stretched the ligaments and opened up
your joints while pumping blood around your body. This is the correct method of
warming up.
--- End Sequence ---
Understanding what you are doing and what you will achieve
from doing it is very important as an active person in life. You don’t have to
be an elite athlete, but if you approach your life from the simple manner that
the elite do, you too will reap the benefits.
Always warm up dynamically, and cool down statically.
© Hellweek PT™ 2009-2013
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