Pre-Workout Workout – Stretching and Warming Up Guidelines

Pre-Workout Workout
By: Eric Howser

I cannot begin to stress the importance of stretching and warming up before a good lift. Anybody who is serious about building muscle will tell you that these are necessities to healthy muscle growth. For those of you who do not understand why, pay attention.

Stretching is the deliberate lengthening of muscles in order to increase muscle flexibility and joint range of motion, which is one of the most important parts of your exercise. Stretching improves flexibility, flexible muscles improve performance, and improved performance means faster growth. Stretching also increases blood flow to your muscles, which aids in the delivery of the needed fuels for your muscles to perform, and increased circulation can help shorten the recovery time of your muscles.

When stretching you need to use proper technique to avoid unnecessary injury. First, you must warm up your muscles to avoid a tear when stretching. This can be done by doing something as simple as walking a few laps and pumping your arms. Once you feel that you have warmed your muscles, you may begin to stretch. To avoid over stretching, never stretch past the point of pain. If you start to feel more than a moderate burn, slowly back off to a point where there is less pain. When stretching you should maintain a hold for at least 30 seconds to ensure that you lengthen your muscle tissue safely. While stretching NEVER bounce! Bouncing while you stretch can cause small tears in your muscles that leave scar tissue as your muscles heal. The scar tissue will begin to make your muscles tighter leaving you less flexible than before. Lastly, a light stretch before your regimen followed by a thorough stretch afterwards will prove to be the most beneficial.

Warming up is simply that, warming up. It’s meant to raise your body temperature and helps reduce muscle and connective tissue injuries. As the body temperature rises you begin to sweat, which in result decreases the amount of heat stored by your body. The decrease in stored body heat prevents your body temperature from reaching dangerously high levels during your regimen. A proper warm up also prepares the cardiovascular and muscular systems to transition from rest to strenuous exercise and prevents unwanted muscular soreness.

There is no big secret to warming up and stretching. It is meant to increase your performance, keep your body healthy, and allow you a quicker recovery time. If you can manage to follow the simple rules and use proper technique, you will see a significant change in your ability to perform longer and more productively.