One of the biggest mistakes I have noticed many lifters make in the gym is neglecting to do a proper warm up before working out. They dive right into a heavy weights workout and then wonder why they are injured after only a few months of training. In this article you will lean about the importance of warming up and how to go about it.
Warming up before intense weight training workouts is important for a few reasons. By warming up you will:
1. Get your blood flowing and heart rate up.
2. Warm up the muscles you are going to use.
3. It prepares your mind and body for exercise.
4. Most importantly, you can decrease the risks of injury.
Many people remember to do a light warm up to get the bloody flowing and the heart rate up, but the neglect to warm up the correct muscle groups which they will be training.
For example, if you are going to do a big back and biceps workout with chin ups and deadlifts and barbell curls then a run on the treadmill isn’t really going to do much is it? How does working out your legs help you warm up your rhomboids? It doesn’t.
What is a better warm up? Okay so you know running isn’t a good warm up for an upper body workout but what do you do instead? You need to work the muscles you are going to use. If you are going to workout your back then get on the rowing machine for 10 minutes and really get the blood flowing through those lats and rhomboids.
How you choose to warm up is completely up to you. I will say it again though. Make sure you warm up the muscles you are going to use in the workout. At the gym, you can use the exercise bike, treadmill, rowing machine or a jog will all suffice for the cardiovascular component of the warm up, depending on what weight training routine you have planned.
It’s time to move to the resistance component of the warm up. This component of the warm up requires that you do 5 warm up sets. For example. if it was a chest day and your first exercise was the flat barbell bench press. You would perform 5 sets of that exercise with a very light weight and high reps. The goal of warm up sets is not to fatigue the muscles, so make sure you only use light weights. You just want to increase blood flow to the muscles and prepare the CNS for a heavier weight.
But won’t all this warming up make the muscles tired for the workout? Many people are obsessed with the fact that warming up will make them tired and stop them from lifting as heavy. This is garbage. You guys are strong and motivated, a little warm up is not going to kill you. By properly warming up with some light cardio and warm up sets you will be able to lift more weight during the workout and the increased performance capacity will allow you to build more muscle.
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