The Importance of a Good Warm Up
A safe work out includes warming up before any serious activity. We do warming up exercises as part of class, but these are meant to follow a slower, more careful warm-up, so I encourage students to move and stretch before class starts. It is vitally important that students (and teachers) warm up carefully and don’t just dive into class unprepared. If you warn muscles as to what you want them to do, they respond a lot better… and you avoid pulls and strains. Also, warming up gets your heart ready for exercise. At the bottom, I included a couple of hot links to articles on stretching. These offer visuals and more detail than I included here. First: Warm Up Studies have shown that muscles need warmed up (literally, raising the temperature of your body) before you put harsher demands on them. The best way to start warming up is to walk or jog slowly around for a few minutes. Once you’re warm, start at the top: move your neck gently and slowly, back and forth (stretch out your chin...