Trainer Tip #16: Don’t skip the warm-up

The purpose of a warm-up is to increase heart and respiration rate, increase tissue temperature, and psychologically prepare the individual for higher training intensities.

Failure to warm up can result in injury of unprepared muscles.

Your warm-up should last between 5-10 minutes at a low-to moderate intensity.

When you exercise and your muscles work harder, your body uses more oxygen and produces more carbon dioxide. To cope with this extra demand, your breathing has to increase from about 15 times a minute (12 litres of air) when you are resting, up to about 40–60 times a minute (100 litres of air) during exercise.*

You may find you are more out of breath during the first five minutes of exercising. This is normal.

Don’t skip the warm up!

*Per National Institute of Health