Posted June 17, 2011 - 3:00pm by Tracy
Are pre-workout warm-ups really necessary?
A new study on the effectiveness of pre-workout warm-ups has many athletes — and the Well Community staff — wondering: Are warm-ups really necessary? And could they be doing more harm than good?
According to the New York Time’s Well blog, the study, recently published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, found that some athletes warm up so thoroughly that they are too tired to perform well afterward.
But on the other hand, trainers have long advocated warm-ups to prep the muscles for the workout. Also, on a personal note, I have always found that warming up can focus my mind on the challenge I’m about to undertake. Do those benefits outweigh the potential costs of overworking the muscles before a workout?
To answer these questions, we turned to an expert on the matter: Megan Slattery, a personal trainer and the group fitness supervisor at Galter LifeCenter in Chicago.
She pointed out that the study was of highly competitive athletes — not your average Chicagoan — so the results should be put in perspective.
“It appears that more research is needed in regard to the effects of warm-up on athletic performance,” Slattery said.
She admitted that this isn’t the most telling response to a new study, but clarified that it is important for the general population who exercise for health and wellness, rather than competitively or professionally, to complete a 5- to 10-minute warm-up prior to workouts to see optimal results and prevent injury.
If you don’t know where to begin with your warm-up, she recommended keeping it simple:
For a cardio workout:
Try a light, easy cardio exercise like walking, jogging or jump roping. Any repetitive exercise that works your big muscles and gets your heart pumping is great.
For a strength workout:
Focus on doing an exercise that preps your muscles for the motion you will be using, without the weight. For example, if you are going to do squats with weights, your warm-up could be repetitive squats without weight. You can also try dynamic stretching.
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