Have you ever taken yoga from an instructor who skips the warmup? What about a personal training session with a trainer who starts you off with no warmup sets or active stretching? It happens a lot in the fitness industry and most of the time the customer isn’t aware of how important the warmup is, or that it was never executed properly, if at all, by their instructor. All workouts should incorporate a proper warmup every time for a variety of reasons.
Don’t skip the warmup!
The workout warmup initiates dialogue with the mind and body. You have to enter a workout with the right intentions. From the moment you begin your warmup, before the intensity of the main workout begins, it is important to connect your mind with your body as you begin to move from posture to posture and/or from rep to rep. Warming up, and especially warming up inside of an infrared sauna, can help to initiate the mind/body link. Focus means nothing during a workout if the connection is lost, or if it never begins. A fully conscious practice will elevate this awareness beginning with the proper warmup.
Thus, the warmup is your opportunity to begin to find your workout focus. I can tell you from experience that warming up inside of an infrared sauna for a workout is the best warmup you're going to find. From the moment that you walk into the radiance of the infrared heat in the sauna, you begin to find more mental clarity and your muscles begin to loosen. You are receiving good waves of energy like that you would feel on a beach under the warmth of the sun but without any of the harmful rays. Endorphins fire up in that moment too and continue to fire throughout the entire infrared workout session. This fosters better mental function and, of course it make focus easier to achieve.
The warmup is vital to help with workout injury prevention. Warm up stretching is easier inside of an infrared sauna due to the heat and infrared promoting improved blood flow. Elevated circulation is important for your workout but you shouldn’t try to force an immediate elevated heart rate by going straight into a workout with no warmup. You have to ramp up like a plane taking off of a runway. HOTWORX calls this warm up the “Launch Phase”. Going straight to a workout set is unsafe for you heart and it is unsafe for the rest of your muscles. Ramp up first. You need to ease into it before going straight to high intensity. Muscle injuries happen often due to lack of proper warmup.
“Warm-up and stretching are essential to preventing muscle injuries by increasing the elasticity of muscles and smoothing muscular contractions. Improper or excessive stretching and warming up can, however, predispose to muscle injury.” (1)
Warming up, and doing it properly is essential to your fitness routine and will increase your mental focus while preventing injury. This is why virtual instruction is such an advantage. You will know that the warm up will always be performed and done right with a virtual trainer from a well produced workout video like that of a HOTWORX session.
Don’t skip your workout warmups!!!
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