How to warm up the muscles before stretching

To make the muscles more flexible, they need warming up. Trainers recommend starting with a small warm-up, followed by stretching and the basic system of exercises. The final stage is a complete stretching of all muscles. Such an approach will help 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 blood flow, and the exercises themselves will not take much time and effort. For example, light walking or turning by hand, pelvis, head, etc. Main tasks:

• tone the whole muscle group, raise the temperature;
• reduce overvoltage;
• improve muscle elasticity;
• reduce the load 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 process of stretching.

When the muscles are cold, there is a risk of injury during exercise with unreasonable speed and strength. This is the opinion of most professionals.

General recommendations for increasing the temperature of the muscles

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

• Everything is done at a slow pace. Haste does not contribute to relaxation, but on the contrary, can lead to injury.
• At first, take up simple exercises, gradually adding new ones, each time a little more complicated.
• The duration of warming up to 15 minutes, and not to exhaustion.

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

Universal exercises

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

Next, determine which group of muscles is most loaded during stretching. On these parts of the body and should be the main focus when warming up. For any kind of physical activity, there are such universal movements as rotation of the neck, warm-up shoulders, torso turns. For warming up the lower part are walking at a slow pace, squats, swing legs, jumping with a skipping rope. The forward bends give elasticity not only to the muscles of the back, but also to the vertebrae. Easy run is very effective. You can do it either on a treadmill in the gym or in the open air, which is more beneficial for the body. The calf muscles will become warmer when lifting the legs.

Stretching exercises can also be used as warming exercises. Raise up your arms, clasp the wrist of the second hand. Take a leisurely tilt to the left. Return to the initial position and repeat, but in the opposite direction.

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

Lying on your back, lift your legs up at a right angle. Clasping the ankles with your hands, pull your legs to your head, pulling on your socks. Do not tear the lower back from the floor.

Final can be exercises with a rope. No such at hand - replace the jumps on the spot.

So, regardless of whether you need stretching for professional victories, moral and physical satisfaction from the flexibility of the body or to gain benefits for your body, you can only achieve the maximum result without any injuries by properly warming up the entire muscle group before stretching.

Video: warm-up and stretching before training