3477: Why You Should Always Warm-Up Before Your Personal Training Sessions by Ashley Ann Lawrie with Free Form Fitness

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[00:00:58] Any disease. This is Optimal Health Daily. Why you should always warm up before your personal training sessions. By Ashley Ann Lawrie and Lori of freeformfitness.ca. And I'm Dr. Neal Malik. Hey there, happy Saturday. Thank you so much for being here. And welcome back to Optimal Health Daily, where I act as your narrator of the best health and fitness blogs, all for free. So with that, let's get right to it and start optimizing your life.

[00:01:30] Why you should always warm up before your personal training sessions. By Ashley and Lori of freeformfitness.ca. A good warm up has more of an impact on your workout than you may realize. It may feel tedious or even pointless, but it plays a very important role in the effectiveness of your workout. If you have ever skipped a warm up or wondered why you even bother with it, then this article is for you. 1. Get your head in the game.

[00:02:00] A dedicated 5-10 minute warm up can work wonders for your mindset. Taking that time to switch your mind off from the daily stress, or the stress you anticipate for the day if you're an early riser, will allow you to focus all of your energy on the workout. This may seem trivial, but your level of focus can actually play into the safety of the overall workout. If your mind is wandering when you're supposed to be bracing your core before a squat, then you risk not bracing properly.

[00:02:29] Although you can perform a squat without bracing, the risk of injury increases because you haven't stabilized the spine. If there's anything that will add unnecessary stress to your day, it's a sore back. So, during your warm up, find ways to set aside the world outside of the gym. Bring in music and get lost in that while you warm up. Or, be very intentional about the warm up exercises you choose, and think about how they will impact your upcoming workout.

[00:02:56] If your muscles or your joints are feeling tight, try to really focus on that feeling. 2. Increases synovial fluid at the joints. The human body is made up of many fluid and structural elements. Each of these serves a specific purpose, and the synovial fluid, which is found in synovial joints, is especially important. This fluid is found in the joints that we use most often. Think, shoulders, knees, and elbows.

[00:03:24] Synovial fluid acts as a cushion between joints, as it's thick enough to reduce friction between the cartilage of the bones. When we warm up, our body temperature increases. When the body temperature increases, it helps the synovial fluid warm up and allows it to do its job properly. As an example, think about when you first get out of bed in the morning. Your knees and your shoulders will move, but they feel stiff and sticky.

[00:03:49] As you start your day, all of a sudden you notice there's less stiffness in the joints. This is due to the synovial fluid requiring some time and an increase in body temperature in order to create that fluid barrier between the bones. Three, brings oxygen and nutrients to the body. As we now know, a good warm up encourages the movement of important fluids in the body. One of the most important fluids is blood.

[00:04:16] Blood carries things like oxygen and broken down nutrients like glucose. As the blood circulates through every area of the body, it delivers the oxygen and the nutrients to the sites that need it. Our muscles run on a few different fuel sources. Creatine phosphate, which is stored in the muscle, glucose, and oxygen. The glucose and oxygen need to be on its way to the muscle in a steady flow in order to have a steady supply of energy. If you've ever been doing an exercise and have gone to failure

[00:04:46] where it feels like you have no control over whether your body can keep doing the exercise, it's likely because the blood cannot deliver the nutrients fast enough to that area. Will a good warm up protect you from reaching muscular failure? No, but it will make the first few sets a little easier than if you had not done a good warm up. This is why dynamic warm ups are more effective than just simply stretching. In a dynamic warm up, you're moving the body

[00:05:12] and the movement will signal the body to start pumping some of the blood away from the organs and towards the muscles and joints. And four, improves the technique of lifts. The final reason to have a good warm up is that it will help with your overall technique in your main lifts. Many athletes will actually use their warm up to help connect their minds to the muscles they will be training that day. If you think about it right now, do you notice your glute muscles?

[00:05:40] How about your pectoralis muscles, the muscles across your chest? Most people don't think about how these muscles feel as they work throughout the day. By performing specific warm up movements, you can make a very direct connection between the muscles and the mind. This translates into better recruitment of those muscles during technical movements like the deadlift and the bench press. Better recruitment means you get the full benefit of the exercise.

[00:06:06] If you have ever skipped a warm up or wondered why you bother with it, we hope that you now realize just how crucial it is to your success. Not only will it improve your focus during the workout, but will actually protect your joints and help them move better. A good warm up will help signal to the body that it's time to start delivering those vital nutrients to the muscles and joints. Finally, if technique is important to you, which it should be, a great warm up will make

[00:06:32] that oh so important mind to muscle connection, meaning no workout goes to waste. You just listened to the post titled, Why You Should Always Warm Up Before Your Personal Training Sessions by Ashley and Lori of freeformfitness.ca. Then I'll be right back with my commentary. Hey, it's Christy from Lululemon. I'm in the office with what's new and the Breezley collection has definitely caught my eye.

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[00:08:29] Now, the other question I often get, besides is a warm-up a good idea, is when is the best time to stretch? Is it after the warm-up? After the workout? Before I warm up? Never? Never? Well, definitely not never. The best time to stretch is actually at the end of the workout. You thought I was going to say after the warm-up, didn't you? After the warm-up would be the second best option.

[00:08:56] So, if you warm up for 5 to 10 minutes and then know that by the end of your training session, you're not going to have time to do any kind of stretching or you're going to be so wiped, you're probably not going to do it, then yeah, get in the stretching after the warm-up. But, if you do have time after your workout or you know you'll still have that little bit of energy left to get in those stretches, that is actually the best time.

[00:09:22] You actually never want to stretch cold, meaning you don't want to hop into the gym and start stretching. You want to warm up first because, as today's author, Ashley Ann Lawrie, mentioned, you want to be sure that you get your muscles and synovial joints ready before you start to stretch. By doing that, you'll help prevent any injuries that could happen from overstretching your muscles. All right, that'll do it for today. I hope you have a great weekend if you're listening in real time,

[00:09:50] and I'll see you back here tomorrow for the Sunday show and where your optimal life awaits.