Excercise To Lose Weight - Warm Up To Warming Up!
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We all know we have to excercise to lose weight. But, knowing it, doesn't make it any more fun! In fact, most of us dislike working out. Add in the challenges posed by our jobs and family obligations and our workout sessions quickly become a chore that we try to get through as quickly as possible.
So far, so good. We all feel that way at times. (Btw- working out becomes more enjoyable with time.) So in our rush to "get it over with" we are tempted to skip or at least gloss over our warm up routine.
Skipping your warm-up puts your body in serious danger of injury. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. Warning - don't do it! It's a disaster just waiting to happen, yet it's so easily avoided. I'm constantly surprised at how easily we accept the rationalizations of, "It won't happen to me" or "Just this once..."
Don't believe it? Evidence of rationalization - even though we know it's bad for us - is all around. Over thirty years ago the surgeon general put a cancer warning on every pack of cigarettes. Yet there are still tens of millions of smokers out there. Lung cancer is one of if not THE most prevalent cancer. We all know abusing illegal drugs is dangerous, addictive, VERY expensive, illegal and so on...yet illicit drug sales is a multi-billion dollar industry.
So the thought - that you can "get away with it" and can save a little time by skipping your warm up - WILL occur to you. Fight it. When you excercise to lose weight, allow a couple extra minutes to warm up and cool down afterwards. It's worth it.
Great news! Properly warming-up makes the rest of your session more effective and a little easier as well. So you don't really save anything by skipping it. When you excercise to lose weight, you'll get more benefit from each session, it'll be easier and you'll avoid injury by making it a rule to never skip the warm-up.
Fortunately your warm up doesn't have to take long or involve much effort. You can adequately do the job in a quick five minutes. It doesn't have to be boring...you can avoid falling into a rut by mixing up your moves. There are quite a few moves that work very well.
If you aren't planning on working out a certain set of muscles...for example you want to work on upper body strength and not your legs, be sure to warm up and stretch your legs too. A complete warm up should include getting ALL your muscles stretched and moving. Any excercise to lose weight routine whether it is using weights or aerobics requires a warm up. It's vital.
The whole idea of the warm up is just to get your muscles moving and stretched out. It doesn't have to be hard just get the blood flowing. Lunges, jumping Jacks, jogging and skipping rope are all possible options.
Even though many people consider stretching as more of a cooling down strategy, you should include it in your warm up. There are a lot of good reasons. Plus, it can't hurt to do a few stretches, but it certainly CAN hurt - literally - to skip them.
Why not (if you really object to spending the time) try warming up before you even get to the gym? Stop fighting the crowd for a decent parking space! Park several blocks away and fast walk the rest of the way to the gym. Whenever you have a choice between stairs and elevator, choose stairs. You will be well on your way to being warmed up before you even hit the gym floor.
Here's a sad tale...I once saw around fifteen people waiting for an elevator to take them up to the gym! ONE floor - about twenty steps - AND they had to walk right past the stairs to get to the elevator. (I thought they were there to get a workout! BTW - half of them went straight from the elevator to the Stairmaster.)
Whether you want to lose hundreds or just a couple of pounds, any excercise to lose weight routine will start slow and rapidly build in intensity. Without a warm up, this can be risky. To remain safe and injury free, give it the couple minutes that's required.
Article Source: Articlelogy.com
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