Warm-up!

First off sorry for the big delay, but the Holidays are hectic and then January just, um, stinks....so many bills!

This post makes me feel like a fed up mother who is tired of telling her teen son to eat his vegetables as he gobbles down Twinkies and Cherry Coke.

I often say there are 3 things that cause injuries when training ( other than complete body breakdowns that do happen from time to time).

1. Injury from lack of sleep/stress. Usually the "body breakdown" injuries tie into this
2. Injury from poor technique/being a bonehead. Anytime you are training and think, "Hmmm, this feels a little too heavy" or if you just know that your form is terrible and you continue through the exercise.
3. Injury from a lack of proper warm-up.

Let's talk about #3 for a minute. The warm-up is never fun. It's not sexy. It really is like seeing a big heaping pile of plain steamed broccoli on your plate. You know it won't be that great, but you also know your body loves it. The bottom line is you NEED to warm up for 10 minutes at the minimum. Usually 5 minutes on a full body cardio machine like a rower and then follow that up with 5 minutes of exercises that are similar to what you will be doing that day. In the case of most of my clients, this means warm up EVERYTHING because we hit everything in a circuit. Let's look at a few of the benefits and WHY it reduces injury rates:

1. Increased heart rate , which enables oxygen in the blood to travel with greater speed
2. Increased production of synovial fluid located between the joints to reduce friction and allow joints to move more efficiently
3. Dilation of capillaries , which enables oxygen in the blood to travel at a higher volume
4. Increase of temperature in the muscles, reducing viscosity and making them more "loose"
5. Decreased viscosity of blood, which enables oxygen in the blood to travel with greater speed
6. Greater extensibility and elasticity of muscle fibers, which will increase force and speed of muscle contraction

So do what you have to do. Hold your nose and eat the broccoli and for God's sake, warm up.