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Warming Up to the Idea |
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Longer days and Spring weather combine to lure us out of our winter burrows and back into activities we may have shelved during the rain and cold. Spring and summer are the seasons we resolve to get back into shape. Less clothing makes us aware of those pounds we put on over the holidays, too!
We want to encourage you to dust off that sports equipment and get involved in whatever activity makes you feel good. But, you should not expect to take up at the pace you left off if you have been inactive for a couple of months. You need to condition your body over a few weeks or you will suffer sore muscles, at the very least, and you may injure yourself.
Sports, almost by definition, involve repetitive motions. When done in a forceful and/or awkward manner, these motions will cause damage to your soft tissues (i.e., tendons, ligaments and muscles). Inappropriate or inefficient equipment can also cause damage, which can lead to a very painful Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). Gee, where have you heard that before? And you thought it only applied to your workstation! Believe it or not, a huge amount of the strain you put on your body does not occur when you are sitting at your computer or moving your mouse around. In recent years, health practitioners have stopped taking injured clients out of work because people tend to overdo activities at home. We want to help you be more aware of the things you may be doing in your leisure time which add to the overall problems you may be experiencing at work.
There are two extremely important things that you must do if you are going to avoid RSI while being active. First, you need to warm up your body, and secondly, you need to stretch the muscles that you will be using in the planned activity. You may not have experienced any problems when you were young and did not stretch, or if you did, your body quickly recovered. Unfortunately, the injuries you experienced earlier will likely be the problems that arise repeatedly throughout the rest of your life. The healing process starts taking more time as we age. Tissues are not as elastic as they were when you were young, so pushing your limits is more likely to cause damage. Aches and pains you never had before become an increasing problem.
Lack of time or forgetting to warm up and stretch is a real problem. In addition, a macho attitude may keep you from warming up, or if you exercise with a group, you may not stretch if no one else is taking time to bother with it. Who wants to look like a wuss by stretching if everyone else seems to be vibrant and healthy enough to tackle the sport without this preparation? We strongly encourage you to plan time into your activity to do the necessary warm-ups and stretches. It's likely that if you begin a group activity by warming up that others will join you, knowing that it's the right thing to do! Lead them in stretches at the end of the activity and everyone will benefit!
Warming up is simple. By doing a bit of walking or slow stationary bicycling before strength training, or by starting your chosen activity at a lower level of intensity, you gradually increase the circulation throughout your body and raise your body temperature a bit. This warm-up process will prevent tissue damage that may occur from stretching or using cold, inflexible muscles and tendons. Warming up should take at least 5 minutes, preferably 10 minutes. Start slow and increase the intensity to just prior to becoming aerobic (i.e., before you start breathing noticeably harder).
After you are nicely warmed up, take another 5 minutes or more to stretch the muscle groups that you will be using for the upcoming activity. Many people don't really understand this very well. For example, hikers may stretch their arms and shoulders before a hike without stretching their legs. There is nothing wrong with stretching arms and shoulders, but it's much more important to focus on the quadriceps, hamstrings, and Achilles tendons which will be used on the hike and, therefore, more likely to be injured if they are not properly stretched.
Stretching performs two functions. It increases the flexibility of the muscles and tendons. It also squeezes the muscles, effectively wringing the old pooled blood out of them, allowing fresh, oxygenated blood to flood them in preparation for the upcoming activity.
When you stretch, it should be to a point where you feel a slight pull or resistance in the muscle, but never to a point of pain. You should never bounce while stretching. Stretch to the point of tension, breathe, and hold for 10 to 20 seconds. It is better to hold the stretch for 20 seconds to allow the tissues to fully relax. Then slowly release the stretch. If you want to increase flexibility, stretch again. You should be able to reach just a bit farther than the first stretch.
Always remember to breathe while you are stretching. Do not hold your breath. Another very important thing to do is to not look around to see how far other people are stretching. This is not a competition! Close your eyes and feel your own body.
Finally, we should stress that cool down and stretching at the end of exercise is also very important -- not for the same reasons as warming up and stretching at the beginning, however. The cool down period allows your heart rate to gradually return to a normal level. If you don't do this, especially if you lie down immediately, you risk the possibility of passing out. Stretching after exercise improves flexibility because the heated tissues are at their most elastic point and least likely to be injured. More importantly, it promotes the exchange of lactic acid and oxygen. Lactic acid build up causes muscle soreness. So, if you stretch after you exercise, you will be less sore and will move better the next day or two than if you hadn't stretched.
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