There is too many times where an athlete will show up late to a workout and just jump right in on whatever is happening, swimming, running or riding without any kind of a warm up. There are other athletes that are so pinched for time that they end up skipping their warm up so that they can squeeze more of a warm up into their busy schedule. Unfortunately, a warm up is not something that you can simply gloss over when it comes to preparing for a triathlon. This two part series seeks to look at why.
Your warm up will enhance your performance, and it will prevent injuries. These are the two major purposes that a warm up activity is going to serve for you. As a result, any warm up that you do is going to be both mental and physical in nature.
As you sit at the computer right now, you have a 15% to 20% level of blood flow to the skeletal muscles in your body. Most of the capillaries or small blood vessels within those muscles are closed off right now. After approximately 10 to 12 minutes worth of exercise, the blood flow to these muscles is going to increase as much as 70% to 75% and this is going to open up those capillaries.
Along with this increase in blood flow you are going to find an increase in your muscle temperature as well. This is a good thing because the hemoglobin in your blood is responsible for releasing oxygen much more readily when your temperature is higher. When more blood is going to your muscles, along with more readily available oxygen, you are going to have a better performance.
This increase in temperature is also going to contribute to muscles contracting and relaxing more quickly. Muscle metabolism is going to be increased, nerve transmission is going to be increased, and so your muscles are going to work in a more efficient manner.
Scientific studies are beginning to link warming up with injury prevention, but these scientific studies are unfortunately quite difficult to administer because not many athletes are interested in going through muscle stress tests just to see what it takes to make a muscle tear. Studies using animal subjects have determined that making a muscle sustain injury is much harder once the muscle has gone through a warm up process.
There have also been studies on humans regarding high intensity forms of exercise and the effects that they cause on the heart. There was one particular study that involved 44 men that did not have any over symptoms relating to corony artery disease or CAD. These men ran on a treadmill at a high intensity for between 10 seconds and 15 seconds without a warm up. The ECG or Electrocardiogram results showed that more than 70 percent out of all of the subjects displayed an abnormal ECG change that was attributed to low blood supply reaching the heart muscle. This is not a good thing!
Photo Credits: peasap
Originally posted 2009-09-29 03:12:08. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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