TRAINING ADVICE
Warm ups
Warming up prior to exercise, helps lower your risk of injuries and the aches and pains that come with exercise.
The physiological reason is to assist your circulatory system in pumping the blood carrying oxygen to your muscles. The aim is to increase circulation around the body, in a gradual manner, without putting any pressure onto the body. A proper warm-up before vigorous exercise safely prepares the body for the workload. Cold muscles do not absorb shock or impact as well, and are more susceptible to injury. Warm muscles stretch better and allow greater range of motion for the joints.

A warm-up helps your body prepare itself for exercise both mentally and physically, and reduces the chance of injury. During a warm-up, any injury or illness you have can often be recognized, and further injury prevented. Other benefits of a proper warm up include:
• Increased movement of blood through your tissues, making the muscles more pliable.
• Increased delivery of oxygen and nutrients to your muscles by increasing the blood flow. This prevents you from getting out of breath early or too easily.
• Prepares your muscles for stretching (which should follow a good warm up)
• Prepares your heart for an increase in activity, preventing a rapid increase in blood pressure
• Prepares you mentally for the upcoming exercise
• Primes your nerve-to-muscle pathways to be ready for exercise
• Improves coordination and reaction times
Stretching
Flexibility training is broadly accepted as a way to increase joint mobility and reduce injuries. The goal of stretching is to improve or maintain joint mobility while still maintaining the joint’s stability. Although recent research has shown that different stretching methods will improve joint flexibility, it should be noted that appropriate stretching at inappropriate times can still cause injury and impair joint stability. Personally I like to use a lot of functional stretching with my athletes, especially after a routine of passive stretches. With dynamic stretches the aim is to developing the flexibility necessary for a specific activity or sport without compromising joint stability (can you see a pattern!!).

As you age (sorry guys!!), your muscles tighten and the range of movement in the joints can be reduced. This can put a damper on activity levels and even hinder training. A regular stretching program can help lengthen your muscles and make daily living activities easier.

Stretching should be a part of your daily routine, whether you exercise or not. If you are doing strength training exercises, you can stretch in between sets.

It does not have to involve a huge time commitment, but stretching can end up giving you huge results! Here are just a few of the benefits you can expect from a regular stretching program:
• Injury prevention
• Increased range of movement in the joints
• Enhanced muscular coordination - (this tends to occur with dynamic stretches – it can actually diminish muscular coordination if passive stretches are done too much)
• Increased circulation of the blood to various parts of the body
• Delayed onset of muscle fatigue – (muscles will fatigue but you can diminish the effect)
• Enhanced performance in sports
• Improved posture
An increased range of movement, means your limbs and joints can move further before an injury occurs, so stretching can help to prevent an injury by promoting recovery and decreasing soreness. The more conditioned your muscles and tendons are, the better they can handle the rigors of sport and exercise, and the less likely that they'll become injured.

So all you athletes out there listen up – especially if any of you have read the article that Colin Jackson wrote!! If you’ve ever been treated by me, or seen any of my answers / blogs you will understand how happy I was to finally have a someone high up in the sporting food chain reiterate exactly what I had been saying for years.

Athletes need to be flexible, but also stable at that range of flexibility.

Again remember Take care, train hard, train well but most importantly have fun – if it’s going to hurt this much you may as well enjoy it!!!

	Author:	physioroute (physioroute's profile, physioroute's blog)
	Posted On:	Monday, 8th December '08, 4:22pm
	Tags:	Badminton, Baseball, Basketball, Bodybuilding, Boxing, Cricket, Cycling, Distance Running, Endurance, Exercise, Field Events, Fitness, Flexibility, Football, Golf, Gymnastics, Injury, Marathon Training, Plyometric, Proprioceptive, Rowing, Rugby, Running, Skiing, Soccer Training, Sprinting, Squash, Stretching, Swimming, Tennis, Training, Triathlon, Volleyball and Warm Up
	Comments:	2 comments, go to comments

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