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What are the Benefits of a Proper Warm Up Routine?

A warm up routine is essential for athletes for various reasons, reducing the risk for injury is just one. What are the others? Find out more or watch the video!

Many recreational athletes don’t warm up at all or perform warm up exercises that are inappropriate (e.g. static stretching before competition), which generally results in a decline in overall performance and increases the risk for injuries!

Ok, here we go. I will talk about:

  1. the purpose of a warm up
  2. benefits of a warm up
  3. recommendations for a quick warm up routine

Do you warm up before every training session or match?

Purpose of the Warm Up Routine

The objective of the warm up routine is to decrease the risk for injury but does warming up really do just that? The plausible answer is yes even though there has not been any scientific evidence that warming up decreases the risk injury. Reason being – it seems to be very difficult to isolate all the variables.

warm up routine

Warm Up Routine Decreases The Risk for Injury

The concept is to increase muscle tissue temperature. If your muscle tissue is less bisque, particularly at the joint capsule, then elastic properties of the muscle tissue are diminished and efficiency of neural transmission and proprioception is compromised, which means that your coordination suffers.

The enhanced dynamics of the muscle tissue due to the warm up routine are:

  • Improved elastic properties – flexibility (ROM)
  • Greater efficiency of neural transmission
  • Improved proprioception – enhanced coordination/stability

Because proprioceptors (which are sensors that locate body positioning) are more dynamically enhanced with a warm up, the risk of overextending yourself into a muscle strain due to lack of tissue pliability is diminished, and your ability to maintain stability improves.

Also, improving elastic properties by generating more blood flow to the muscle tissue and hence elevating muscle temperature has a positive effect on being able to generate more power (vs. static stretching).

Therefore, I suggest that improving your ability to maintain stability and increasing the range of motion (ROM) at a joint would reduce one’s risk for injury.

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