Warming Up Isn’t Optional, It’s Optimal

Practice breeds improvement. Warming up primes practice.

Photo by Bernard de Clerk on Unsplash

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again,

WARM UP!

I’m not talking about doing little arm stretches across the chest or touching your toes.

I mean a full-on, designated warm-up routine.

I understand we’re all eager to start our workout. Whether that be lifting weights or sprinting on the track, all we care about are the meat & potatoes — the actual workout itself.

Thus, we tend to ignore the veggies — the warm-up preceding the workout.

But if there’s one common agreement among vegetables, it’s that we know they are essential for good health, yet we tend to ignore them.

The same applies to our warm-up. Sure, we can choose to not do it, but our refusal to do so will eventually catch up and grab us when we least expect it.

So when I see athletes — particularly young folks — who are constantly burdened with chronic knee pain, shin splints, or something of that nature while exercising, I get frustrated knowing that a bulk of those nuisances could have been prevented by a decent warm-up.

Here’s the thing: Our body needs to be primed before we suddenly go full-swing on intensity. Not doing so is kinda like microwaving a cup of ramen noodles before adding water. It’s a recipe for disaster (Trust me, I’ve done this before -_-).

I know, I know. The idea of warming up sounds so primitive. But it’s an investment worth spending our time and effort on that will pay off in the long run.

It’s a Crime to Not Take the Time!

If you or somebody you know always prefers to half-ass or ignore a warm-up entirely, consider this one question:

Would you rather spend an extra 10 minutes prepping your muscles, or an extra 10 weeks resting and icing your injured body?

You’d be surprised by how many athletes choose the latter. Call it laziness, ignorance, or pure ego (“Pssh I’m not gonna get hurt, it hasn’t happened before and it won’t…