Warming up is of paramount importance during winter

Think of your muscles as a rubber-band ball- tightly wound. Now think of that rubber-band ball sitting in a refrigerator! While this is a slight exaggeration, your pre-workout muscles are tightly wound and they start colder during the winter time. If you initiate a vigorous work out with muscles in this state, there is a higher likelihood that they will be strained to the point of injury. Enter warming up, the period pre-exercise in which you gently ease the muscles into activity. 

 

Warming up is about temperature

Devoting as little as five minutes to warming up allows your body temperature to rise, as will the temperature of your muscles. As the muscles warm, they loosen, allowing them to contract and relax more efficiently. Not only are you preventing injury, but you are allowing them to strengthen more efficiently. Warming up should not be static: save the static stretches for post-workout; instead utilize dynamic stretching that incorporates stretches with simple movements to activate your muscles and get them ready to reap the greatest possible reward from your work out. 

Keeping your fitness up through the winter

Yesterday marked the shortest day of the seasonal cycle, meaning that from now on daylight hours will be getting longer. However, we are still in the dead of winter, which means our motivation is generally lower than in the summer. Call our office in Hackensack and let us help you keep your fitness up so that you can: 

Maintain and control a healthy weight
Improve your circulation
Strengthen muscles and bones
Keep pain and stiffness down

Dr. Albert Stabile, D.C.