Warm Up Activities Part 1

The warm up activities are a crucial part of any exercise regime or sports training. The importance of a structured warm up routine should not be under estimated when it comes to the prevention of sports injury. A solid warm up routine will go a long way in keeping your body in top condition Windsor Pilates will help you avoid serious injury further down the road.

Warm up activities include a number of very important key elements. These elements, or parts, should all be working together to minimize the likelihood of sports injury from physical activity.

Warming up prior to any physical activity does a number of beneficial things, but primarily its main purpose is to prepare the body and mind for more strenuous activity. One of the ways it achieves this is by helping to increase the body's core temperature, while also increasing the body's muscle temperature. By increasing muscle temperature you're helping to make the muscles loose, supple and pliable.

Effective warm up activities also have the effect of increasing both your heart rate and your respiratory rate. This increases blood flow, which in turn increases the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the working muscles. All this helps to prepare the muscles, tendons and joints for more strenuous activity.

Keeping in mind the aims or goals of effective warm up activities, we can then go on to look at the structure of the warm up itself.

Obviously, it's important to start with the easiest and most gentle activity first, building upon each part with more energetic activities, until the body is at a physical and mental peak. This is the state in which the body is most prepared for the physical activity to come, and where the likelihood of sports injury has been minimized as much as possible. So, how should you structure your warm up to achieve these goals?

There are four key elements, or parts, which should be included to ensure an effective and complete warm up. They are:

• The general warm up;


• Static stretching;


• The sports specific warm up; and


• Dynamic stretching.

All four parts are equally important and any one part should not be neglected or thought of as not necessary. All four elements work together to bring the body and mind to a physical peak, ensuring the athlete is prepared for the activity to come. This process will help ensure the athlete has a minimal risk of sports injury.

Of course this is a very simplistic view of proper warm up activities. Each element has specific requirements of its own. Only by combining these elements in the right way will you achieve the maximum results for your efforts. In part two, we will take a closer look at the proper procedure for warming up and each of the individual steps in detail.

Article by Brad Walker. Brad is an internationally recognized stretching and sports injury consultant with 20 years of practical experience in the health and fitness industry. Brad is a Health Science graduate of the University of New England and has postgraduate accreditations in athletics, swimming and triathlon coaching. He has worked with elite level and world champion athletes and lectures for Sports Medicine Australia on injury prevention. Brad is also the author of The Stretching Handbook, The Anatomy of Stretching and The Anatomy of Sports Injuries.

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Cardio Fitness to a Happy Heart

Most of us know about cardiovascular fitness but still we are looking for alternative and easy ways of loosing fat and get a toned up body. There are no shortcuts to a good lean body, even though the market is full of products claiming to do so. It needs some consistent efforts Windsor Pilates Dvd our part to see the results. You can not see the results overnight, it's a cumulative effect that adds up. Cardio training and cardio fitness is the best way to get in shape and have all other health benefits like a healthy cardiovascular system ie. your heart and lungs.

Any form of aerobic exercise that keeps your heart rate close to target heart rate would add up to your cardio training. Running, jogging, cycling, aerobics, martial arts or even some forms of dance can help you do so. Good cardio session is the best way to burn up those extra calories, anyone looking for a weight loss should count the intake of calories and try to burn more than they consume. Intensity and duration of a cardio workout is what makes it effective. A fit cardio system would keep up your metabolism making you feel good and energetic through out the day.

It is tough for most people to let their bodies come out of comfort zones and make them workout and sweat. It takes some effort at first but if you continue with your routine, you would be looking forward to your sessions and enjoy them. There are lots of ways to keep a person motivated to reach for his fitness goals- take a gym membership, get a partner for exercise, take up something of your interest or get exercise equipment like treadmill or elliptical trainer.

Prevention is always better than cures. Get a ton of health benefits with cardio fitness, rather than getting treated or looking for short cuts to obesity, heart diseases and respiratory disorders. It's the only body and life we have, respect it, keep fit and enjoy every moment.

Adam is a fitness enthusiast keenly interested in fitness and health for the last 12 years. Get fitness information and tips with all the news and reviews about the best equipments and products at fitnessandequipments "> fitnessandequipments