Friday 8 February 2013

Warm-up and streching


I'm sure I don't have to tell you all the importance of warming up and stretching, Now that I have written about Cardio, Core and Hip exercises the only thing that keeps you from creating your own program is a little bit of warm-up and stretching.

Warm-up/dynamic stretching
(Make sure to move your hands as well)
  1. March in place
  2. Box step (move one leg forward and out then the other leg forward and out, bring your first foot back to starting position then your next foot to the starting position)
  3. Side step - tap toe (tap your foot side to side and move your hands to reach out to the opposite side. Tap foot to left side, right hand reach out to left side)
  4. Side tap and hamstring curl (same as above along with a hamstring curl)
  5. skip on spot
  6. Rotate your arms (like you are swimming, front and backstroke)
  7. Teddy bear hug ( strech your arms and then hug yourself for exercising :) )
  8. Front kick - touch toe
Usually after a good warm up your heart rate should be a little raised and muscles are ready to work out. If I ever skip a warm up I land up getting muscle cramps, so it is best to warm-up before you get into any form of exercise
I could not find good images for any of the above warm up exercises so I have tried my best to explain them.

Cool down/Stretching 
Stretching helps relax all the worked up muscles, it brings everything (breathing, heart rate) back to normal.

Keep Reading I will Keep Writing 
Tanvee
( P.S. special thanks to sparkspeople.com for all the images, it made my life so much easier.)

4 comments:

  1. Great list of stretches for both warming up and cooling down -- so very important and often neglected!

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    1. when I started I used to ignore stretching..and I quickly learnt my lessons the hard way :( so now no skipping warm up or stretching

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  2. Great post. I think I better do some before I dig myself out of the blizzard we are going through right now!

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    1. thank you, hope you are doing better now...stay warm and workout at home :)

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