How to warm up properly before working out and prevent injury?

Although a proper warm-up before training is absolutely essential, many people still neglect it and therefore put themselves at risk of injury.

Therefore, in today's article, it would be good to explain how such a warm-up wouldand what are the biggest benefits of regular stretching. So let's get into it with gusto.

Static or dynamic stretching?

When someone stretches properly before a workout, they often focus their attention on static stretching. However, this is inappropriate before a workout because, as confirmed by many studies have shownit has no effect on reducing the risk of injury during exercise. This fact is all the more paradoxical because most of us have been brought up in the spirit of static stretching before exercise since kindergarten.

Warm-ups before training should be rather dynamic, as this cane reduce the risk of injury to a minimum, warm up the body and above all prepare it for performance. There are even scientific evidence comparing static stretching to dynamic stretching. These have found in most cases that dynamic stretching is a much more effective choice before training. However, it's a different story if you're trying to improve flexibility and strength performance isn't your first priority.

What should the warm-up itself look like?

When it comes to dynamic stretching as such, it is important to involve as many different joints as possible in the movement. The emphasis must be not only on the spine, but also on the shoulders, wrists, hips, ankles and other joints.

A great example is wrist circling with light one-armed dumbbells, which is very often practiced by various exercisers in gyms. This is just one of many exercises, as you should ideally spend around 10-15 minutes on dynamic stretching.

If you don't know how to put such dynamic stretching together, definitely check out the following great video by Ales Lamka, where this nice athlete explains all the exercises in a simple and understandable way, plus he adds a few reasons why you should include dynamic stretching at all:

Does it make sense to include a ride on the exercise bike before training?

Cardio in any of its forms is undoubtedly a controversial topic even in professional circles of this sport. Personally, I don't think it makes much sense after training, not to mention the fact that most of us don't even think about cardio after a good workout.

However, it does play a very important role before exercise in my opinion , as it brings a huge amount of positives, such as:

• Increase in body temperature
• Increase in anaerobic capacity
• Increase in heart rate
• Preparing the body for exercise
• Reducing the risk of injury and more

Is it important to stretch outside of training?

One of the few athletes to talk about the importance of stretching OUTSIDE of training Jonáš Petříkand we think it's important to elaborate a bit.

If you sit or lie down for 20 hours of the day and are active for 4 hours, what is your body more likely to adapt to?

Not to mention that regular exercise shortens all tendons and muscles. If you want to improve your mobility, you should do it at least three times a day. In my experience, I recommend stretching in the morning after waking up, in the evening before going to bed, and just before and after training.(before training dynamically, after training statically, as we will explain in a separate article).

If you're interested in exercises to improve mobility and flexibility for strength training, I definitely recommend this video by popularThis video from the popular youtubers TheLeanMachines, who cover the subject in great detail and can be a good inspiration for you:

So what is the conclusion?

As we have already mentioned once in our article on the importance of regeneration, stretching can be really useful, not only before training but also after.

So if you pay attention to it regularly, you will definitely see results. It is important not to underestimate stretching, otherwise you risk injury and also rob yourself of maximum results in the gym.

We hope that not only the article, but also the videos in it have made this complicated topic at least a little bit closer to you. If you have any other questions about stretching, feel free to ask in the comments.

And what should stretching look like AFTER a workout? Find out here.