Warming Up Before Workout:
All serve their different purposes, but the two you should be most concerned with, in terms of your warm up and cool down for weight training and other similar activities are dynamic and static stretching, which I will talk about later.
Warming up is very important before any workout, whether it be before a 100 m sprint or before maxing out on bench press. But the question you may be asking is why it is important?
The answer is because it prepares muscles and joints for greater levels of activity, and also primes CNS to fire. It also has numerous other benefits such as:
Reducing muscle stiffness (which is directly related to muscle injury)
Increases speed of contraction/relaxation of the muscles that have been
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This can hinder your ability to recover quickly from a workout, so don't overdo it.
What Types Of Stretches Do You Perform Before A Workout?
Do You Stretch You Whole Body Or Just The Body Parts You Are Working That Day? When stretching prior to working out, the best type of stretches to perform are dynamic stretches. These stretches reduce muscle stiffness, which is related to muscle injury. Dynamic stretches consist of controlled leg and arm swings.
Stretching during your workout is not necessary; just perform your warm up sets prior to each exercise. If you are going to stretch during your workout, don't stretch the muscle you are directly using in the movement(s), stretch the antagonistic muscles e.g.
When squatting, stretch the hip flexors, or when benching, stretch the lats. This has been shown to be of great assistance and can help improve your performance in the movement(s).
You are only required to stretch the body parts you are working on the day. However keep in mind you must know what muscles and joints you are working in the particular exercise(s), a lot of the time there are a lot more muscles involved than you