Get to know: Warm-up Exercises – Importance and Benefits | Sports & Fitness



Sports evoke enthusiasm of astronomical proportions. Right from our childhood we love to play all day but pursuing it professionally is a different thing. Choosing sports as a career is a complete contrast from sports as a leisure time activity. First of all, it involves discipline, dedication and both depends on routine & practice. We love sports but hate routine. Speaking of routine, the basic thing propping on everyone’s mind is Warm-Up.

Enter the playing arena; warm-up is the first thing the coaches insist before getting to any other activity.  Ignorance of its importance and laziness makes many avoiding warm-ups affecting one’s overall performance. Fundamentally, warm-up involves a series of activities ranging from low intensity to medium preparing one’s muscles for vigorous actions. Warm-up conditions our body and mind for fast and effective movements leading to optimal performance.

Basic benefits of warm-up include

  1. Enable oxygen in blood to travel at a faster rate.
  2. Increased elasticity of body muscles diluting muscle sprains and strains.
  3. Increased Heart rate and Respiration resulting more oxygen absorption.
  4. Reduces friction in joints due to increased production of synovial fluid reducing injuries.
  5. Promotes increased level of adrenaline evoking positive emotional response.

Warm up Exercises Static and Dynamic Stretching
Basic warm-up exercises include stretching, jogging and skipping. Stretching is broadly categorized into static, dynamic and ballistic based on one’s movements. Static movements involve extending your muscles to its maximum elongation and holding it for specific duration (30 seconds in most cases). Dynamic Stretching refers to a complete range of motion performed by a muscle to increase its range of movement. Ballistic stretching involves muscle movement beyond its usual limit and generally not recommended.

Aside from its range of movement, Stretching is categorized into active and passive modes. Active stretching involves movement with application of any external forces including gravity whereas passive stretching involves application of force/gravity to a specific part of body inducing a reaction. Passive stretching is usually done with help from a partner.

So warriors, Train like you’re second to play like First.  

Warm up Exercises Static and Dynamic Stretching Full Body Stretches Infographics

COURTESY: Video – Lean Foundation | Images – Twitter, SportsScience, Spotebi, PaulaBecker

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