Part 2: Why Warm-up?

Static stretch

A warm-up can prepare you both mentally and physically for strenuous activity, decrease your risk of injury, and improve your overall performance. To achieve a suitable workout status, warm ups increase your body's core temperature, while also increasing your body's muscle temperature. When your body’s muscle temperature increases, this helps your muscles loosen up, and also provides them with the ability to become more flexible and pliable. During a warm-up, any injuries or illnesses you have can often be identified, and further injuries can often be prevented.

Warm-ups can also provide you with an increased motivation to exercise because you will be producing higher quality results than if you were to flat out skip your warm up. Taking the time to warm up properly will make your workout that much more enjoyable because you will be well prepared.

Did You Know?

Warm-ups are particularly vital for the elderly for a few reasons:

- They tend to have muscle tissues and ligaments that are less supple.

- They tend to have less fluid in their joints.

- They tend to have weaker hearts.

If you do not allow your heart rate to increase gradually, sudden exercise can induce heart attacks for those with a higher risk for heart disease.

Before moving on, please complete a short quiz related to this section:

Next: Pop Quiz #2