LANCASTER & MORECAMBE AC

The Warm Up and Warm Down - Why do them?

• The warm-up will make sure that your body is ready to stretch and perform
• There are many components that do not have a good supply of blood and oxygen whilst you are traveling - this might sound obvious, but most sports ignore warm-up
• By getting your heart rate from its resting of around 60 beats per minute (bpm) to around 120, and by jogging, you start to get blood supplied in quantity to the parts that will need it
• Whilst traveling in a car/bus etc, you are sitting and limbs and joints will have the blood shaken to your extremities, whilst the heart rate lowers, ensuring that the supply of blood to the extremities is poor. If you stretch after traveling, you will be asking for trouble
• After a training session, you will have built up chemicals in your muscles as well as possibly collection a number of microscopic muscle strains and tears
• A warm-down simply raises your breathing without overstraining your muscles and increases the concentration of oxygen within the blood, whilst gently washing out chemicals (such as lactic acid) from your muscles
• This gentle "internal washing" could be visualised as somewhat similar to a shower after a Rugby Match . . . . it won't mend a broken leg, but it will take away the mud that could cause an infection or make your skin uncomfortable. It's the best you can do and injuries will show themselves and can be treated
• I have seen many people treated for sports injuries at Athletics meetings by trained professionals. Their advice after treatment, despite the discomfort factor, is to "warm down as well as you can" if the athlete had been competing so that muscle soreness does not add to the injury

David Croxall

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