Warm Muscles

You have probably already heard that you are supposed to warm up your muscles before you are active, but do you know why?

Warming up your muscles helps them to be more flexible and ready to stretch, pull, and work.

Warm muscles are flexible muscles.

Why do you warm up?

It is important to warm up not only the muscles, but also the ligaments and tendons in your joints in order to avoid injury. 

When these tissues are warm, they are less stiff and less likely to be hurt by the pulling and stretching that happens to them while being active.

Why do you warm up?

Your heart does a pretty incredible job of speeding up with little notice to make sure your muscles get what they need to work.

However, allowing your heart to slowly speed up lets it keep up with all of the demands your muscles ask of it.

Why do you warm up?

Your joints benefit from allowing your muscles to become more flexible, but they also like to be woken up slowly.

Joints often have fluid in them that allows the muscles and bones to slide easily and work together.

Why do you warm up?

Your warm-up is a great time to think about what you are about to do and get ready to put in the effort that you want to.

Thinking about what you are about to do helps you perform the skills better when you are actually doing them.