Top tips for warming up before exercise

Hello. My name is Matthew Carr and I'm a chartered physiotherapist working with Horder Healthcare. We're here at the Eastbourne Half Marathon to support the runners with any injuries or muscle soreness they have after they finish the race. Preparing for an event like this requires a lot of training and effective training requires an effective warm up. I would like to give you my top tips on how to get the best out of your warm up. Tip number one, plan your warm up into your exercise session. I know it sounds simple, but it's all too easy to get to your exercise and start your exercise without warming up. A warm up is a great time to mentally prepare for the challenge ahead and to focus on the task you're about to undertake. Evidence shows that an effective warm up helps to reduce the risk of injury and improve the effectiveness of your performance when you undertake your exercise even by up eighty percent some research shows. Tip number two, make sure you incorporate some light cardiovascular exercise into your warm up. Cardiovascular exercise is exercise that helps to increase your heart rate and increase your breathing rate. It can include activity such as brisk walking, jogging and cycling. Cardiovascular exercise not only helps to provide the muscles with much needed oxygen and nutrients, but helps to increase the muscles temperature, helping to improve the elasticity and flexibility of the muscle and reduce the risk of any muscle strains or pause. Tip number three, don't warm up too early. Research has shown that the benefits of a warm up only last up to thirty minutes. So make sure you plan enough time before your exercise to make sure you can fit in the warm up quite close to when you're about to undertake the exercise. Tip number four, make sure you include dynamic stretches into your warm up as well as or instead of static stretches. A static stretch is a stretch where you take a muscle to the end of its range and hold it at the end of its range. A dynamic stretch is a stretch where you move the muscle through its range towards the end of its range, but you don't hold it. If we take the adductors, the muscles on the inside of the thigh as an example, a static stretch for these would be to place your the leg you want to stretch out and lean away from it until you feel a stretch through the adductors. A dynamic stretch would be to move this muscle through its range towards the end of its range, but without holding, such as an activity like this. Dynamic stretches have been shown to be more effective than static stretches, increasing the flexibility of the muscle and reducing the risk of injury. Tip number five, make sure you consider the temperature. In colder weather, it's going to take longer to increase the temperature of your muscles. So make sure you allow extra time to do your like cardiovascular exercise to bring your muscles up to optimum temperature so that you can perform your exercise with the least amount of risk of causing any strains or falls. Tip number six, make sure you take time to formulate a warm up that best suits your needs. Warm ups are more effective if they're based on the activities you're about to perform during the exercise you're about to undertake. Also consider your level of fitness and your level of flexibility to make sure the stretches you choose are appropriate for your level.