Candy bar

Welcome to afitnewyou!  This week I would like to talk to you about the importance of doing a proper warm up before you exercise.  Whether your exercise plan for the day involves “cardio” or weight training exercises, or you are engaging in an athletic activity, it is important to do a proper warm up when you start in order to minimize the chance that you will suffer a muscle injury.  This is because our muscles need to be warm and limber in order to be pliable throughout the activity.  One analogy I make for my clients is I tell them to imagine that their muscles are like a candy bar; when warm, they can be stretched much further than when they are cold.

John is one of my clients who has that love-hate relationship with me that many clients have with their trainers.  Depending on the point of the workout his opinion of me will change as is evident in his affectionate nick names for me.  When he walks into the gym he calls me Billy the Kid; but at the end of the session he calls me William the Conqueror.  John has a thing for nick names.  And towards the end of his sessions he will start looking for “the Angel” who is the female client who comes in after he does.  He calls her that because he feels that when he sees her, his session will end.  When the Angel comes in before his session ends, he jokes that he can end early.  But I am always quick to remind him that his angel has come in early because she has to warm up before her session starts.

So as I said earlier, I like to use the analogy of a candy bar with my clients to explain why it is important to do a proper warm up before being physically active.  I tell them to think about a chocolate caramel candy bar.  I ask them to envision what would happen to that candy bar if you tried to bend it or pull on it after leaving for a few hours in the freezer.  It’s a clear visual that when the candy bar is cold, that it would break.  Then I tell them to imagine what would happen if you did the same thing after putting the chocolate bar in the microwave for a few seconds.  Again, it would be quite apparent that the bar would get gooey, not break, and be able to be stretched for quite a bit.  Hopefully thinking about candy isn’t too much of a distraction, because this is a great analogy about why it is important to warm up your muscles before you exercise. 

Whether you are just waking up after lying down and sleeping for a few hours, sitting at your desk at work all day, or even in the minutes spent driving to the gym, your muscles are “cold” like the candy bar in the freezer.  Although they will not snap in quite the same way, the chance of an injury is much higher because like the cold candy bar, they are not nearly as pliable.  On the other hand, if you do a quick warm up before exercising, a couple of minutes of an easy jog before running on the treadmill, or a couple of lighter sets before doing heavier weights while weight training, you will allow your muscles to “warm up” and become more pliable like that gooey bar from the microwave.  Having muscles that have warmed up will both increase your performance and decrease the chance of injury.

Comparing how your muscles behave when warmed up to a candy bar is one time I can accept you thinking about dessert with exercising.   This is because cold muscles have a greater chance of injury because they are not as flexible as muscles that have had the opportunity to warm up.  Getting to the gym is great, but being able to stay in the gym because you aren’t nursing an injury is even better.  It is important to find the time to warm up properly before exercise.  A brief warm up at the start of your physical activity is a necessary part to keeping you on track to a fit new you!