How to warm up muscles before stretching

To make the muscles more supple, they need warming up. Trainers recommend starting with a little warm-up, followed by stretching and the basic system of exercises. The final stage is a full stretching of all muscles. This approach will help to avoid pain in the muscle mass, improve relaxation and increase their endurance.

Even if you are not a professional athlete, but do stretching for your health and pleasure, take a little extra time to warm up your muscles. This will speed up the flow of blood, and the exercises themselves will not take much time and effort. For example, easy walking or rotation with arms, pelvis, head, etc. Main tasks:

• tone the entire muscle group, increase the temperature;
• reduce overvoltage;
• improve muscle elasticity;
• reduce the burden on the heart by increasing cardiovascular activity;
• increase heart rate;
• increase the intensity of the training process;
• reduce the risk of excessive stretching, deformation and injury;
• warming up allows you to psychologically prepare for the stretching process itself.

When the muscles are cold, there is a risk of injury during exercise at exorbitant speed and power load. This is the opinion of most professionals.

General recommendations for increasing muscle temperature

Following the recommendations below, you will always keep your muscles in order and get only pleasure from stretching:

• Everything is done at a slow pace. Haste does not contribute to relaxation, but rather, can lead to injury.
• First, take on simple exercises, gradually adding new ones, each time a little more complex.
• Duration of warming up to 15 minutes, and not to exhaustion.

Following all the rules of stretching, you can avoid side effects. Experts advise that for warming up muscles it is better to perform exercises similar to the basic system of physical activity, but at a more relaxed pace. The movements aimed at warming up the muscles should have a certain sequence.

Universal exercises

Increase in muscle temperature start with basic relaxation. To do this, take the original position - feet in width of the shoulders. Raise your hands on a deep breath and lower on an exhale. And so 4-5 approaches.

Next, determine which muscle group is most loaded during stretching. The main emphasis should be placed on these parts of the body during heating. With any kind of physical activity, there are such universal movements as neck rotation, shoulder warm-up, torso turns. To warm up the lower part are walking at a slow pace, squats, swinging legs, jumping rope. Leaning forward gives elasticity not only to the muscles of the back, but also to the vertebrae. Easy jogging is very effective. You can perform it either on a treadmill in the gym, or in the fresh air, which is more beneficial for the body. The calf muscles will become warmer when lifting the legs.

Stretching exercises can also be warming. Holding up your hands, wrap your palm around the wrist of the other hand. Lean slowly to the left. Return to the original position and repeat, but in the opposite direction.

To warm up the muscles in the lower part, lunge with one foot while leaning on the knee with the other. Carefully pull the heel of the same foot to the buttock with your hands.

Lying on your back, lift your legs up at a right angle. Grasping the ankles with your hands, pull your legs to the head, pulling the sock onto you. Do not tear your lower back off the floor.

Rope exercises can be final. There is none at hand - replace with jumps in place.

So, regardless of whether you need a stretch for professional victories, moral and physical satisfaction from the flexibility of the body or to benefit for your body, to achieve maximum results without concomitant injuries, you can only properly warm up the entire muscle group before stretching.

Video: warming up and stretching before training