Injury Prevention: The top reasons to warm up before exercising

Staying active and getting regular exercise is one of the best things you can do for your overall health and wellness. There are numerous studies showing the benefits of physical activity for both your physical and mental wellbeing. While physical activity is extremely beneficial for you, it does not come without some potential risks. Injury from different forms of physical activity is very common and gets more common with age. Some injuries can resolve themselves quickly but others may be more painful and last longer or even become chronic issues. You don’t want to let this deter you from the benefits of physical activity though. Instead, focus on ways you can help prevent injuries from exercise such as performing warm-ups before getting started. You’ll find some of the top benefits of warm ups below.

• Increases blood flow- when you perform a slow warm-up prior to exercising, it gives you a couple of benefits. First, it will begin to raise your body temperature which in turn serves to increase your blood flow. The increases in body temperature and blood flow are important because they help get more oxygen to your muscles. The more oxygen you have readily available to your muscles the more easily they will contract and relax which will allow you to work out effectively and with more ease. The increase in blood flow also helps prepare your heart for the more difficult exercises you will most likely be performing. By taking time to slowly ramp up your heart rate you are helping protect it from any too sudden or too rigorous strains. 
• Helps prevent injuries- if you do a warm-up before exercising it can help prevent some sports injuries. Warming up gives your body ample time to loosen up and slowly ramp up to the next level of exercising. This preparation can help prevent some muscle strains and injuries.
• Better performance- warm ups can also help prepare you psychologically for your workout. The loosening of muscles and preparation are done by warming up is a perfect time for your mind to switch gears and focus on your task at hand, exercising your body. It can be really easy to get distracted when trying to work out. Warm-ups help minimize these distractions by focusing both your mind and body on your exercise which in turn increases your performance maximizing your efforts.

Sports Injuries

Exercising and sports are physically straining activities by nature so regardless of how effectively you work out, you can still get injured. Trained professionals at Integrated Health Solutions have years of experience in treating all kinds of sports injuries. If you find yourself in need of help either treating an injury or just enhancing your performance reach out to us for information on how we can help!