Warming Up Before Sports
Warming up before any kind of exercise can lead to a better performance and will reduce the risk of muscle and heart damage. No matter how fit and well trained you are for a particular sport, you will face the risk of injury if you don’t warm up before doing the sport. Warming up prepares the body for physical activity in three ways. Firstly, the circulation in the coronary system is stimulated so that sufficient and oxygen can be pumped to the heart when the real effort begins. Secondly, the cartilages in the major joints thicken perceptibly, thus improving the strength of the joints and making them less liable to injury. Thirdly, the muscles themselves actually get warmer and increase in elasticity as well as power.
There are inherent dangers in rushing into strenuous physical activity without warming up first. Your body is just not ready to meet the demands you are making on it. At least you are risking a severe cramp, and the very worst is you might have a heart attack from a condition known as myocardial ischemia (inadequate circulation). Of course, we all know that most people don’t warm up before chasing the bus and they are just fine, so you can often be ok without any preparation before exercises, but it is not the best approach.
Nobody knows exactly what causes cramp. It can affect and athlete just as severely as someone who never do exercises. Cramp and stitch are involuntary contractions of a flexer muscle, far beyond that caused by normal movement. There are many remedies for cramp, but there is no scientifically proved cures.
The most common misconception about warming up is that you need to work up a sweat. The fact is, if you limber up to the point of perspiration, you have expended far too much energy and you will not have the full strength for whatever it is you want to do. As a result, you might not be able to perform well. To warm up for any kind of sport, all you need to do is gently raise your pulse rate to between 100 to 110 beats a minute. It will only take a couple of minutes. However, there is a disagreement among athletes about the necessary warming up. But to make it simple, the best way to warm up for a sport is by practicing non-competitively for five or six minutes. This will adequately exercise the muscles that you will use in the game.
After the exercise, you should warm down slowly. This apparent contradiction can be simply explained. When you are active, all the blood vessels of the body open up to help circulation to the muscles, which squeeze blood to the heart. If you stop suddenly and just stand still with vessels still dilated, the heart has difficulty keeping up supply to some areas without the help of the muscles. Gravity drains the blood away from the brain and you might faint. You can see this draining process in action if your ankles swell after playing tennis or during half-time break of a football match.