You know what makes me really cringe? When I see someone at the gym, or at home (my significant other is guilty of this in spades), just jump right into an intense cardio or muscle workout without even doing any stretching at all, or doing very little stretching. You can have the best low impact treadmills by Horizon, and best reviewed elliptical machines in the world, and if you don’t stretch, you can still be prone to injury!

Any fitness enthusiast of professional will tell you that not warming up and stretching prior to working out is a recipe for multiple injuries. Think about it. Is it good for your car to just take off as soon as you start it in really cold weather? Notice how it kind of bumps along when you do this, lags, and has a very hard time getting into extreme activity (driving at full speed), versus when it is pre-warmed and ready to go?

Well, jumping into an exericse routine, whether it’s a cardio or muscle toning (weights) workout, is akin to running your car soon after it starts when the engine and moving parts are all but frozen. Forcing your body into immediate action before warming up the muscles, and getting them stretched out and ready to work is just like that.

Warming up and stretching is the best way to limber-up your muscles and get them stretched out and nimble. When you do not warm up and stretch, you are forcing jerky actions, and putting a lot of strain on them right away, without giving them any time to get flexible and bendable.

This is why so many people get injuries while attempting certain workouts without adequately warming up their bodies. I’ve seen this in action many times. My signifcant other is extremely succeptible to injuries and pulling muscles because he refuses to adequately stretch his muscles both before and after working out.

Not only that, when I was a novice at fitness, I would not adequately warm up, and many times would end up pulling and straining muscles in my feet, legs, calves and other pieces parts due to the sudden strain placed on them.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 16th, 2007 at 10:22 am and is filed under Workout Regimens. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.