Warming Up Tucson AZ

The How and Why of Warming Up

There are a variety of ways to warm up, ranging from an extended cardio session to almost none at all. Each has its drawbacks and merits. Do whichever one you feel comfortable with or gives you the best results. Beginning trainers should stick with the first and second types of warm-ups while advanced trainers may wish to try the third type.

1. Full Warm-Up

This usually involves doing some low-intensity cardio work for five to ten minutes until you break a sweat. It gets blood flowing and prepares the body for work to come. Some light stretching follows this then a few light sets of whatever exercises are going to be done.

2. Light Set Warm-Up

This involves doing a number of progressively heavier sets (starting very light) on the exercise you are about to do. This prepares the specific muscle group for the work sets. Don't do too much here or your work sets will suffer. These light sets are often done before each new exercise, particularly if you are moving on to a different bodypart. If you are doing a different exercise for the same bodypart, a warm-up for that exercise is usually not necessary, though some trainers like to do a few quick, light reps to get a feel for the movement.

3. Limited Warm-Up

This type of warm-up is for advanced trainers only. Do a set of ten reps with 50% of the weight you're going to be using for that exercise. That's it. Your body can be trained to work fine with this type of limited warm-up.

• If you usually do an extended warm-up, work down to this level slowly.
• This method has the advantage of conserving energy for work sets.
• For exercises where you will be using low reps and very heavy weight (close to your max), you may want to do a low-rep progressive warm-up. For example, if you are doing deadlifts with 405 pounds, do 5 reps with one plate per side, 2 reps with two plates, 1 rep with three plates, and maybe 1 rep with three and a quarter if you feel you need it. This type of pyramid warm-up doesn't exhaust you but still prepares your body for heavy work. This type of warm-up is the best for when you go...