Brayden Clark, outpatient physical therapist, Parkview Sports Medicine, shares how an effective warmup routine can improve performance across a variety of activities.
Watch the video: Experts in Motion: Warmup routines
What it looks like
Your warmup should begin with a cardiovascular activity. This could be jogging, biking, using a rowing machine, or similar activities to elevate the heart rate and increase blood flow. Then, you can perform a short duration of static stretching.
While there's some controversy about this topic, research indicates that as long as you're not doing anything overly intensive—no more than 60 seconds per muscle—it won't be detrimental to your performance. If you feel that something is still a little tight, you can throw in some static stretching to help.
Finally, you'll finish your warmup with a dynamic activity that involves specific motions related to the task you're trying to perform. This is where actions like skipping, jumping and rotational activities should be incorporated. When you're performing these movements, you should finish the warmup within 15 minutes of beginning your activity so that you don't cool off in between.
What to avoid
Try not to fatigue yourself during the warmup. You want to be fresh and prepared for the activity but not exhausted. You also want to make sure that you're doing things that are specific to the task that you need to achieve with your performance.
This guidance applies to almost any physical activity and is applicable to anybody. As long as you're not exhausting yourself, you shouldn't feel any detrimental effects. To learn more about Parkview Sports Medicine Performance services, visit us here.
