How to avoid harming yourself while playing sports

Why is warming up important?

Another important nuance that is often not given due attention is the warm-up before training. This is a special set of simple aerobic exercises that perform several functions at once. Warm-up:

Tones the heart and blood vessels so that the muscles fill with blood faster;
Enhances the functioning of the respiratory system to provide muscle tissue with oxygen;
Stretches muscles and tendons to protect them from injury;
Increases your heart rate gradually to avoid sudden spikes in heart rate;
Accelerates metabolism;
Improves the transmission of nerve impulses to muscles, increasing reaction speed;
Helps to get into the right frame of mind for training.

Warm up before training

Proper warm-up before training protects against injuries and painful sensations. Muscles are warmed up, their elasticity increases, tendons can stretch without damage.

How to do a warm-up correctly

In order for the warm-up to be effective, you need to know how to do it correctly. Here it is important to consider the level of physical fitness, the degree of joint mobility, and the characteristics of the upcoming load. This part of the workout takes about 10 minutes. During this time, you can warm up your muscles, prepare them for active work.

Warm-up before training can be dynamic or static. In the first case, you need to take a certain position and stretch until you feel the tension of the muscles, then return to the starting position. This is a good preparation for strength training. Static warm-up differs in that at the moment of tension of muscle tissue you need to stay in the adopted position for some time. 

The warm-up can be divided into several parts:

General – aimed at functional preparation of the body for exercise;
Stretching – performed after warming up the muscles;
Special – required before working with weights, for example, in the gym.

Warm-up exercises include lateral torso bends, joint rotations: shoulder, radial, wrist, knee, ankle, hip, and spinal twists. You can include light jogging or other low-intensity aerobic exercises in the complex. Sweating should be light or medium, heart rate should be 50-60% of the maximum. It is worth remembering that you need to warm up before any workout, including running.

What is a hitch?

Hitch

There is also the concept of a cool-down, which should also be a mandatory element of training. This is a set of movements that transfers the body excited by the load to a calm state. Usually, the cool-down lasts about 5-10 minutes and includes relaxing exercises. Proper stretching at this stage allows you to speed up the removal of lactic acid from the muscles, which means reducing pain after exercise. At the same time, blood flow in the body is normalized. Yoga exercises are great for a cool-down.