Beautiful Turks and Caicos Islands, cant wait to go back.
It's pretty rare I see anyone warming up and cooling down at the gym. Well let me rephrase that, its rare I see anyone try, it's even more rare to see someone do it properly.
When I do see people attempt to warm up it usually consists of walking for 2 mins or running a half mile 110%.
If they only knew...
So before I go into how to warm up (which is really simple) Ill go a little further into why you should be warming up and cooling down after exercising.
I used to go into the gym like everyone else, or go running like everyone else ans just wing it. Go in/out and work a zillion percent, lifting crazy amounts of weight or running for 80 mins at high noon, and never even bother to warm up or cool down. I remember the first time I did this routine I was astonished. I walked for just 10 mins before running 5 miles and walked 15 after, I got back in my house and felt amazing. It was like I did the entire exercise, without all the after pain and discomfort.
*Usually after a run like this Id be panting and sweating, ready to keel over, jumped in the shower and could barley stand up. *
I just went inside, breathing totally fine, felt AWESOME, most of my sweat had dried up, almost no pain, hell it felt like I barley even ran.
I was just in awe, I always thought warming up and cooling down was a load of crap that was either for weakling ;), or people with to much time on their hands.
My belief for it now is that it is single handedly the most important part of my workout, and anyone with half a brain is doing it.
Heres what warming up and cooling down does.
1. Gets your body ready to begin heavy exercising. Your blood gets moving to different areas of your body. Also, speaking of blood, ever wonder where all that blood comes from to use for your muscles when contracting? Thats right, your organs. Now what do you thinks better for them on a consistent basis, gradually and peacefully moving blood out of them for your muscles or sucking it out like a slurpee?
2. Gets your body warm. The body is going to be more flexible when it's a little warmer and more filled with blood than without. When it's more flexible, you have a far less chance of tearing/pulling/or generally injuring yourself. A warmed up leg can mean a world of a difference for the major ligaments in your knee if you trip while working out.
3. Gets you breathing and moving oxygen throughout your body, ie stimulating your lymph system. The lymph system helps remove wastes from your body and is primarily activated by deep breathing. Taking deep breaths while warming up and cooling down helps dramatically.
4. Cooling down prevents pooling of lactic acid in the muscles. This is fucking key. This is the main reason you'll have FAR less pain after working out if you begin cooling down. After an anaerobic workout your body has a ton of lactic acid left in the muscles. Guess what? That's not good, that's what causes after soreness from working out. No pain no gain? Ya F that shit. If you cool down properly after working out your body has a chance to mix that lactic acid in with your blood properly (so it's diluted) and then your body can get rid of it in the proper fashion. If you dont cool down it's left sitting there, which not only causes soreness but can weaken the muscles. Acid destroys muscles, why let it sit there?
Ok so how do you do it? Simple, gradually increase/decrease your heart rate and rate of exercise, at LEAST 10 mins on both ends of the spectrum.
Next time you work out head into the gym and spend 10 mins WALKING, on the treadmill. I know it feels like a huge waste of time but man it's soooo important for a healthy lifestyle. What I do is increase the incline by a small amount every few mins, or increase the speed by a small small amount as I warm up. So if I start out at 2.9 speed, ill end at like 3.2 towards the end of the warm up. After that I might slow jog for a few mins before hopping on something else (if I choose to go anaerobic and haul ass vs just chill and do some aerobic cardio).
When cooling down, same thing. F *finishing strong* (aside from weight lifting). Gradually slow down your workout and then walk for at least 10 mins, gradually decreasing the speed. If I hop off the rowing machine Ill walk at 3.3 speed and end at like 2.8 or something.
The numbers aren't particularily important but the time is.
And that's it for today. If you're not doing this already START TODAY (because your already exercising 7 days a week, RIGHT?) ;)
-Dream
ps-Slikk and I released a free product today, *the chronicles of dream and slikk*, 160+ page ms word document detailing a few years of gaming. check it out at http://www.under21lifestyle.com/?page=products
