What Is The Real Purpose Of A Warmup ?

Hi !

Don't hate on me for asking this question but i think that warmup is something more than warming up our joints.

Ive read the forum and found out that there are so many warmup exercises there that it made me wonder.

I would like someone to explain the full benefits of a warmup and cool off  ( I heard that they are the most important part of the workout but i dont feel it that way ) 

Will my performance / strength / Hypertrophy increase if i do a good warmup and cool off ?

And if so - can anyone share a warmup routine that he is following ?

Thank you guys !

Warmup is to reduce chance of injury and get you up to peak performance. It primes the workout by reinforcing movement patterns and positions.

In gymnastics cool down is usually stretching and mobility.

The movements that you warmup with depend on where you are in your training. I could share my warmup with you but it wouldn't help too much.

You should do the prerequisites in the warmup if you have mastered them. Also you should include a lower progression of the exercise you intend to do. I also do some mild stretching which I liken to limbering so that I can compress and move into positions during the workout. I also try to start with some running to get my heart rate up. In gymnastic gyms it is common to run around the gym and use it as an obstacle course. At the gym I train at the coaches regularly make the girls run around the gym and swim through the foam pit. I personally try to avoid the foam pit.

The benefits of a warm up are:

1) you heat up the muscles, which allows them to produce energy more rapidly. This actually does make you stronger.

2) As you get older, the heat also makes the tissues more elastic, and therefore somewhat harder to injure. Older athletes, over 30, tend to find that this is very important for them.

3) Like Daniel said, you are priming the CNS for what you are about to do.

It should be obvious that the warm up needs to focus on the muscles you're about to do. That's why good warm ups are often paired with the exercises themselves, and not just piled in the beginning of a workout. You always do a general warm up, but then you do some specific stuff before the real work on each exercise.

Of course, if you're doing rounds (basically super-sets) for, say, the upper body, then you'll warm up for everything in the superset right at the start, and if you do a second superset involving different muscles, such as lower body, you'll warm THEM up after you finish the upper body .

In other words, if you're going to do push ups, pull ups, body rows, and dips for 4 rounds of 7 reps, you'll start off with some arm circles and other unloaded arm/shoulder/scapular movements to warm up the shoulder muscles. Then you'll progress to light dumbbells, wall push ups, inclined push ups, a machine, whatever uses similar muscle groups with much less resistance. Because this stuff is fairly easy, you typically don't need to rest at all. Then you'll do your first superset.

After that, you'll warm up for your (my example) SLS, deadlifts, and RLL by performing bodyweight squats, slowly increasing the ROM to full and warming up the muscles. You'll also do unloaded deadlifts, and some tuck or bent leg RLL. When you feel good and warm IN THE LEGS, you'll start your superset.

Cool-down:

No benefits to healthy populations in terms of slowly reducing heart rate. People with heart issues, and older individuals, may want to do this as a precaution.

This is a good time to do gentle stretching, especially long static stretches. There are studies that suggest PWO stretching can help increase the amount of strength gained, and anecdotal experience (just what people notice, not a controlled trial) is that PWO stretching tends to keep the muscles from tightening up between workouts.

Joshua Naterman said:

The benefits of a warm up are:

 

1) you heat up the muscles, which allows them to produce energy more rapidly. This actually does make you stronger.

2) As you get older, the heat also makes the tissues more elastic, and therefore somewhat harder to injure. Older athletes, over 30, tend to find that this is very important for them.

3) Like Daniel said, you are priming the CNS for what you are about to do.

 

It should be obvious that the warm up needs to focus on the muscles you're about to do. That's why good warm ups are often paired with the exercises themselves, and not just piled in the beginning of a workout. You always do a general warm up, but then you do some specific stuff before the real work on each exercise.

 

Of course, if you're doing rounds (basically super-sets) for, say, the upper body, then you'll warm up for everything in the superset right at the start, and if you do a second superset involving different muscles, such as lower body, you'll warm THEM up after you finish the upper body .

 

In other words, if you're going to do push ups, pull ups, body rows, and dips for 4 rounds of 7 reps, you'll start off with some arm circles and other unloaded arm/shoulder/scapular movements to warm up the shoulder muscles. Then you'll progress to light dumbbells, wall push ups, inclined push ups, a machine, whatever uses similar muscle groups with much less resistance. Because this stuff is fairly easy, you typically don't need to rest at all. Then you'll do your first superset.

 

After that, you'll warm up for your (my example) SLS, deadlifts, and RLL by performing bodyweight squats, slowly increasing the ROM to full and warming up the muscles. You'll also do unloaded deadlifts, and some tuck or bent leg RLL. When you feel good and warm IN THE LEGS, you'll start your superset.

 

 

Cool-down:

 

No benefits to healthy populations in terms of slowly reducing heart rate. People with heart issues, and older individuals, may want to do this as a precaution.

 

This is a good time to do gentle stretching, especially long static stretches. There are studies that suggest PWO stretching can help increase the amount of strength gained, and anecdotal experience (just what people notice, not a controlled trial) is that PWO stretching tends to keep the muscles from tightening up between workouts.

Thanks for the nice reply!

But what is PWO stretching ?

Lets say that you would warmup for a dynamic pressing WOD for example, would it be enough to just do one extra round with the same exercises, only scaled down a notch? Or would you need something more?

MrPuppeh said:

Thanks for the nice reply!

 

But what is PWO stretching ?

Post-workout stretching

Josh's response ^^^

In order to get that full body warmup when possible I do cardio until I just break a sweat - about 10 minutes usually.

Obviously you don't want to tire yourself out.  HR remains under 130. Then I do the joint specific warm-ups.