Warming up and Cooling down steps
Explanation:
Warming up exercises prepares the body for strenuous physical activities. These increase the body flexibility, reduces injury risk and pain, increases oxygen intake and good blood flow, improved range of motion, reduces muscular tension.
The basic steps involved in warming are: Loosening of joints, stretching the muscles, pumping the heart, and practice movements.
- Loosening joints warms up and mobilizes the joints and include upper and lower body rotations.
- Upper body rotations include slow and controlled circling repetitive motions of the joints like wrists, elbows, and shoulder.
- Lower body rotations include leg balancing and rotation of knee and ankle joints in controlled repetitions.
- Stretching exercises of muscles, especially the dynamic stretches warms up the muscles and increases the flexibility. Sequential repetitive stretching targeting all body parts from head to toe should be done. Neck rolls, arm swings, side bends, rocking horse, lunges, leg swings etc are various types of warm up stretches.
<u>Cooling down</u> exercises brings back the body to its normal condition (reduces heart rate, muscle strain etc) after a strenuous exercise activity. These involve mainly cool stretches and slow movements like walking.
- A slow leisure walking is the best cool down exercise to relax the body and mind
- Cool down stretches are static stretches like stretching of legs, chest, arms, and core of the body to relax the strained muscles of the body after a rigorous exercise session.
