One of the most important things you can do in exercise is properly warming up before you get into your actual workout. This is so crucial, with the benefits of getting your body temperature up, decreasing your risk of injury, increasing blood supply to the muscles, and loosening your joints.
Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t warm up because they simply don’t know what to do during a warm-up. So if that’s the case for you, here is a quick and easy five-minute warm-up you can do before any workout to help get you ready.
The Warm-Up
Start with some light cardio exercises to help get your heart rate and body temperature up.
- Jog in place (20 seconds)
- Jumping jacks (20 seconds)
- High knees (20 seconds)
- Butt kicks (20 seconds)
- Half burpees (20 seconds)
Next, move on to dynamic stretches to work on your range of motion. In any warm-up, stretching should be dynamic rather than static because static stretches can actually hamper rather than improve your performance if done before your workout.
- Look side to side
- Neck rolls
- Shoulder rolls backward
- Shoulder rolls forward
- Swing arms out in front of body
- Arm circles in each direction
- Torso twists
- Hip circles
- Leg swings
- Rotate ankles and wrists
