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Exercises for Stretching & Flexibility

Warming up is a bit like going regularly to the dentist. We all know we should, we all pay lip service to the benefits, we all skip it as often as we can.

I remember rolling up to a running race with a mate and finding we had fifteen minutes or so to wait before the gun.

We both stood there and looked at the handful of people who were jogging up and down to warm up. 'Shall we, er.?' I ventured. My mate's icy look stopped me dead. The same thought went through both of our minds - with a long-distance race ahead of us who wanted to run a single step more? We fell silent. Me, my mate and several thousand equally stationary 'athletes' went back to watching those noble few doing their warm-ups.

You know you should warm up. You know in your heart of hearts that it reduces the risk of injury and increases your performance. But the chances are that you don't, or at best you grudgingly spend a token minute or so throwing yourself around a bit. At the risk of sounding like your mum, here's why you should do it properly.

Warming up can mean pretty much any moderate exercise that raises the pulse gradually. Even something as simple as a couple of minutes running on the spot will suffice. The purpose of a simple warm-up is also to raise the body temperature and psychologically prepare for the session ahead. That increase in temperature serves several purposes. Increasing the temperature increases the elasticity of muscle, so reducing the risk of tearing or straining it. It also increases the metabolic rate of cells and the readiness of the nervous system.

Prior to a race or a serious session it is commonly recommended that you warm up for 10-30 minutes. Just before a race, you don't see Olympic athletes huddling like penguins. No, they can be spotted bounding around the stadium doing their warm-ups properly.

For the purposes of a gym session, however, most of us are short on time, and less likely to be working at the limits of our ability. Nonetheless there are still some basic warm-up rules to be followed.

However psyched you are it's not a good idea to throw yourself into a hard session. If you're planning on running hard on the treadmill, then warm up first by setting the speed. First walk comfortably, then faster, then find that point where you are striding so fast you want to break into a run and see if you can hold it there for a minute or so. Unlikely as it may seem, you'll almost certainly record a better time over a short run if you first have a 10 or 20 minute warm-up on the treadmill or elliptical trainer. Try it and see how you get on against the clock.

Confusing stretching and warming up is a common, but potentially, costly mistake. Stretching muscles when cold increases the chance of hurting them (see the point about elasticity above) and stretching on its own is unlikely to raise either your pulse or your body temperature. On the other hand it may lead you to think you've warmed up which makes it more likely that you'll throw yourself into a hard session. Try milder stretching after a bit of warm up - for example run gently for a few minutes and then try stretching at the same time with exercises like high stepping (knees up towards chest) and high kicking (heels to bum).

If you can, choose a warm-up that works both upper and lower body. Even sprinters stop and do press-ups in order to increase blood flow and body temperature.

Always aim to do your cardio first before going to the weights room to push metal around.

Never turn up late for classes, skipping the warm-up and plunging straight into the exercises, and where there is a warm-up remember to use it as such. The guys (they're always guys) who load up the weights in BodyPump during the warm-up simply don't understand what it's about and in their hurry to impress each other they are the most likely to pull something.

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