Starting from the school course of physical education and ending with instructors in fitness clubs, everyone always and everywhere says about the importance and necessity of warming up before training. And this advice is one of the most important – athletes who ignore the warm-up (mostly newcomers or “snowdrops”) make things worse for themselves, and there are several reasons for this.

However, warming up should also be done correctly and correctly: if you wave your hands a couple of times and perform several tilts of the body – there will be little sense from this here.

Best muscle warming exercises

Why warm up?

A question that may seem silly to experienced athletes arises quite often among beginners. Perform exercises to warm up the muscles and warm up the joints in order to prepare them for further stress. Indeed, in the process of training, our body does a serious job (both in the number of movements and in the weight of the lifted “iron”).

“Cold” muscles and stagnant joints are very, very poorly responsive to the load. This affects both the effectiveness of training – you simply can’t overpower your usual working weight without a load – and safety: a sharp and careless movement can easily lead to injury.

Especially warm-up is relevant (not just relevant, but indispensable!) In the cold season (or if the gym is not warm enough). At low air temperatures, our muscles and joints lose their elasticity and mobility, which further increases the risk of injury.

How to warm up?

Well, now let’s have a short educational program on the topic “How to warm up muscles and stretch joints”.

First of all, it should be noted: it is advisable to warm up not only those muscle groups that you plan to load, but the whole body – because in the exercise, many muscles are partially included in the work.

What time?

It is enough to take about 10 minutes to warm up before an intense workout. This is enough to fully “warm up” all muscle groups and stretch all joints.

Oh yes – in addition to warming up before the workout itself, it is strongly recommended to use warm-up approaches immediately before the exercise, with minimal weight.

Let’s get started!

It is best to start a warm-up with running – this lesson will perfectly tone a huge amount of muscles and prepare your respiratory and cardiac systems for further work with iron. Running long and fast is not necessary – it will be enough to run 2-3 minutes at a leisurely pace, and this will be a great start to your workout.

In addition to jogging and exercises from the list below, each muscle group can be rubbed with your hands – this will cause a rush of blood and simplify and speed up the task.

A set of warm-up exercises can be varied – there are a lot of movements that allow you to warm up your muscles, and you cannot make an ideal list. Here is a list of the most effective and efficient options.

Neck:

Tilts the head to the sides.
Rotation of the head.
Shoulders, chest and trapezoid:
Rotations with straight arms clockwise and counterclockwise.
Shoulder rotation.
Swing your arms forward and as far back as possible (in the horizontal plane). The same exercise kneads the chest.
Swing your arms forward and as far back as possible (in a vertical plane).
“Scissors” with hands in front of you.

Hands:

Brush rotation.
Rotation of the arm in the elbow joint.
The elbow is placed behind the head (we raise the right hand up and try to touch the left shoulder blade with the palm of our hand, then vice versa).
Straightening the arm (with the other hand, we take the fingers of the straightened arm and try to straighten it even more, thereby stretching the biceps).

Back and abs:

Tilts of the body to the sides.
Rotation housing.
Body turns.
Bend back.

Legs:

Rises on socks.
Raises the knees (you can help with your hands – to press the knee of the raised leg to the body).
Raises knees with a swing (in and out).
Sweep the legs back.
Rotation of the legs in the knee joint.
Stretching on longitudinal and transverse twine.
Tilts of the body to straight legs (standing or sitting on the floor).

Other:

Warm up can be performed by performing exercises with your own weight (they should be done after movements from the list above for the corresponding muscle group) – literally a few repetitions at a fast pace: