Mar 18 2010
Warm up dilemma
I don’t know about you, but it seems like all too often I’ve only got 30 minutes to squeeze in a workout into my busy day. I got my workout planned out in my head, got my dumbbells and my stability ball in place, ready to bring it, and then the dilemma. I’m pressed for time, and being a personal trainer I know the benefits and the necessity of a proper warm up and stretch, but still I feel the urge to condense it or skip it altogether. I don’t know what it is, but there’s this little voice inside my head that always convinces me to do it. Maybe it’s my subconscious thinking back to all the countless times I’ve sacrificed proper form and bio-mechanics to save time, and ended up with a muscle pull or worse. It rarely ever happens that I do actually skip my warm up, but I have to say I battle it out in my mind every time I need to get a quick workout in. Is it just me?
My personal warm up routine has changed up a lot over the years. At first I would do a lot of static stretching after about 5 minutes on a treadmill or stationary bike. I thought at the time that what I was doing was working, but after some research and experimenting, I found I was actually hindering my workout. After substituting my usual static stretching during my warm up with dynamic stretching, I noticed an increase in the amount of reps I could do. With static stretching, I was actually fatiguing my muscles before my work out even started. I leave my static stretching for the end of my workout now, which helps increase my range of motion, and I feel helps mitigate the pain of DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness).
I have a newborn baby girl at home along with a 3 year old son, so I know I’ll have a lot of days where I’ll be squeezing in a quick workout whenever I get the chance. I’ll be tempted to skip the warm up, but I’ll do it……just like I’m tempted to eat a large pepperoni pizza, and I end up getting a grilled chicken breast instead. You just gotta have a plan and stick to it, and you’ll get the results you’re looking for.
