The Benefits of warm up & cool down

Warming up before starting your workout A good warm up dilates your blood vessels, ensuring that your muscles are well supplied with oxygen. It also raises your muscles’ temperature for optimal flexibility and efficiency. By slowly raising your heart rate, the warm up also helps minimize stress on your heart. It also decreases the risk of injury. After finishing the general 10-15 mins warm up, it is recommended to do some specific warm up: for example, if you’re going to train chest, warming up your shoulder joint by doing some elastic band abduction, internal rotations, which will protect the joints.

Cooling down after your workout

At the end of your workout, cooling down is as important as warming up. After physical activity, your heart will still beat faster than normal, your body temperature will be higher and your blood vessels will be dilated. This means if you stop too fast, you could feel uncomfortable. The cool down allows a gradual decrease at the end of the episode. Plus it’s good to stretch when you’re cooling down because your limbs, muscles, and joints are still warm. And, it will reduce the buildup of lactic acid which can lead to muscles cramping and stiffness. Serge Dischekenian BA in Physical Education (NDU)