Warming up before exercise: Warm-up exercises

Warm-up exercises before any sport are particularly important for you and your health. We will show you here which exercises are suitable for warming up and what you should do and when.

Whether you’re working out indoors or going for a long bike ride, hike or jog outdoors, you should first warm up. You can use similar warm-up exercises for different training areas. Whether you’re training with a resistance band, dumbbells or no equipment at all – the preceding exercises should specifically warm up the muscle groups that you’ll be using the most during exercise.

That’s why warming up before exercise is important

Warm-up exercises protect you from sports injuries. This is because muscles and tendons are warm after warm-up exercises, especially after stretching exercises, and are therefore not overloaded by sudden stretching.

Warming up also helps your circulation to prepare better for the strenuous exercises. You shouldn’t underestimate so-called HIIT workouts (high-intensity interval workouts). These alternate very strenuous exercises with short breaks. If you warm up beforehand and control your breathing, you will continue to supply your body with enough oxygen and the risk of injury will be reduced. Then you can push yourself to your limits without worry.

It is also helpful to do a cool-down after your workout, the opposite of a warm-up. This allows your muscles to relax after you have given it your all.

Stretching exercises to warm up

Before you start with the proper warm-up, it is best to stretch all muscle groups properly. If done regularly, stretching not only promotes general mobility, but also reduces the likelihood of cramps or sore muscles after the workout.

Before exercising, you should stretch your muscles dynamically. You don’t hold an exercise at a constant level, but perform it in a rocking motion. This way, you stretch the muscles briefly and then relax them again.

You should stretch these body parts:

• Thigh
• Calves
• Shoulders/Upper arms

You can find out how to stretch your legs here: Stretching exercises for legs: How to stretch your calves and thighs.

An example to stretch your thighs, hips and buttocks:

1. For this stretching exercise, get into a lunge position with your right leg pointing forward and your left knee and shin on the floor. Make sure that your right leg forms a roughly right angle between your calf and thigh.
2. Now push your hips forward to feel the stretch in your hip and thigh and go straight back to the starting position.
3. Repeat the stretch a few times and switch legs.

Exercise for shoulder/upper arm stretch:

1. Place the arm you want to stretch on your collarbone so that it forms a line from one shoulder to the other.
2. Then, with your free hand, press it toward your body at the elbow until you feel the stretch.
3. Come out of the stretch immediately and repeat the stretch a few times. Always keep moving and do not hold the stretch for longer than two to three seconds.
4. Then place the hand of the same arm on your shoulder blade. The elbow points towards the sky.
5. Again, use your free hand to press against your elbow towards your lower back.

For indoor workouts, add abdominal and back stretches if you want to target these areas in your workout. You can find some back exercises in this article:

When doing any exercise, make sure to use your joints gently, as they can quickly become overloaded when stretching. So only stretch as far as you can and relax your muscles.

Warming up before outdoor sports

You don’t need any equipment for the warm-up exercises outside. As already mentioned, the general rule is that you should warm up the muscle groups that you use during exercise beforehand. For endurance sports such as running and cycling, this works well by setting off slowly. You shouldn’t exhaust yourself or set new records, but rather prepare your body for the strenuous exercise.

Warm up your shoulders as you warm up by slowly circling them in both directions. Running variations such as sideways jumps or heel kicks also prepare your body well.

Anfersen – this is how it is done:

1. At first, keep running at a relaxed pace.
2. Then throw your legs alternately backwards so that your heels briefly touch your bottom.
3. You can also hold your hands in front of it to make sure your legs are high enough.
4. Go into a quick, jumping form.

Additional exercises before running: You should perform each exercise for 30 to 60 seconds.

Skipping:

1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart.
2. Then pull your knees alternately towards your stomach as far as possible.
3. Gradually increase the speed until you are in a jumping position. This will warm up your calves.

Lungs:

1. Take a big step forward.
2. Then bend both legs to your knees.
3. Spring yourself back up from the heel of your front foot towards your back leg.
4. Alternate both legs and move into a flowing movement.
5. Make sure that both legs are at approximately a right angle and that your knees are in line with your toes.

Jumping jacks:

1. Your feet should touch in the starting position, your arms should be at your sides.
2. Jump up and land in a wide-legged position. At the same time, raise both arms above your head.
3. Then jump back to the starting position.
4. This movement must also be performed quickly.

After that, you can add some strength endurance exercises to prepare the muscles for heavy loads. Heavy loads can be, for example, long distances, but also high running speeds. Additional exercises are not necessarily necessary when cycling.

Then start the main workout by slowly increasing the load. Then slowly reduce the load so that your muscles get used to relaxing again.

Exercises for warming up at home

Before doing workout exercises at home, you should warm up your whole body. Stretching and flexibility exercises are more important here than strength exercises, as these are part of the main workout. Since the joints are stressed during the following strength exercises, you should also warm these up well. To do this, you rotate the relevant body part in circular movements.

The joints in the following places are important:

• hands
• Shoulders, arms
• Hull (back and forth)
• Hip
• Thighs (bend legs away from the body), lower legs and knees
• Feet

You should structure your workout in such a way that you give your body time to warm up. So increase the difficulty level of your exercises and then lower it again until you cool down. Jumping jacks and skaters train you without putting too much strain on your muscles. The main part is strength exercises, such as bicep curls or dips, where you also use equipment such as weights.

At Utopia you will also find other exercises for your workout and a description of the dips: Triceps exercises: 3 effective exercises for at home. When cooling down, you only do stretching exercises or very light strength endurance exercises.

Read more on Techzle\.com:

• Early morning exercise: 8 reasons for a morning workout
• Vegan diet and exercise: is it possible?
• Drinking bottles for sports: 5 recommended models

Edited by Nora Braatz

** marked with ** or orange underlined Links to sources are partly affiliate links: If you buy here, you are actively supporting Techzle\.com, because we then receive a small part of the sales proceeds. .