Why you should warm up & stretch

Wether its a personal workout in the gym, league night with your favourite team sport (e.g. ultimate frisbee, soccer, football, basketball), or especially before a tournament, a very important aspect of any moderate to intense physical activity, most often overlooked by people, is the pre-game warm up & stretch.  

There are several reasons why we should warm up and stretch before a game.  Some of these you may already be aware of, others not so much.  But I’m sure every person can relate to at least one of the following reasons:  

1. Injury Prevention & Increased Flexibility 

2. Overcoming the Fatigue Response 

3. Improved Focus & Team Gelling 

1. Injury Prevention & Increased Flexibility:

Warming up your body before a game increases the synovial fluid in your joints (e.g. knees, shoulders, elbows). This fluid provides extra lubrication to ensure your joints, which are flexing and extending rapidly during the course of a game, are protected against this stress. Think of a rusty door hinge being oiled up (well this analogy may be truer for some of us more than others...). Warmer muscles are more flexible and can stretch better. This is important for the times we’re running hard, jumping and reaching for a ball or disc.  You’re much more likely to pull or tear a muscle, injuring yourself, if you’re cold.  When these muscles are warmed up and stretched before/after your workout you will actually be able to increase your range of movement and increase your flexibility.  After regular stretching you will be able to reach further and further over time.  This could mean touching your toes again, or maybe reaching just a little higher to make that catch you never thought you could.   

Try some of the basic stretches in these diagrams to help loosen up and increase your flexibility. These can be done before (for injury prevention) and after (for increased flexibility) your workouts/games.  

2. Avoiding the Fatigue Response: 

Ever notice how the first 10 min of any workout is the hardest?  Blame the fatigue response. This occurs when your body first begins to work hard and the demand for oxygen increases (notice you’ll begin to breath harder when you first begin exercising). We need oxygen delivered to our muscles to activate the release of energy (e.g. ATP for the scientists among us).  We only store a certain amount of active ATP in our body and we deplete this quickly when we force our muscles to work hard.  There is a lag time between the demand for energy/oxygen and when our heart rate increases and our lungs fully inflate so that the increased load of oxygen can be delivered to our muscles and access/activate the ATP energy.  Eventually, over time (e.g. 10min), our heart and breathing rate adjusts to the heightened demand for oxygen, and we can continue this physical exertion for the length of the game. 

The pre-game warm up is an excellent opportunity to efficiently deal with the fatigue response. If by the start of the game we have all passed this physiological hurdle, and our opponents haven’t, we can easily take advantage because our bodies are more ready for the task at hand.  If you have a good pre-game warm-up you might not always be calling yourselves a ‘second-half team’.  Believe me, I’ve heard that cheer many times! 

3. Improved Focus & Team Gelling:

Finally, I’d like to touch on focus.  We all have stress in our lives, things on our mind.  Its easy to carry these mental distractions over into the game, especially when we’re running from the office, to the car, to the field, barely finding the time to even have a pee before hitting the field!  But if we take the time to warm up, these simple exercises can help clear our mind of the mental clutter and focus in on game strategy.  I know I’ve certainly fumbled catches if my mind wasn’t properly focussed.  

In addition, warming up with your team mates can help you feel more in sync with each other, and help your plays go smoother and build better connections between players - all what I like to call ‘team gelling’. 

In Conclusion, I want you to realize a beneficial warm-up & stretch doesn’t have to be a complicated and lengthly activity. It can be as simple as showing up 10-15 min early to lightly jog for a few minutes, practice some hand-eye coordination drills with your teammates, and following it all up by stretching your major muscle groups.  If your heart rate has been elevated, you’re feeling warm, loose and pumped up, then you’re where you need to be.  

I know that since learning this (through my personal trainer educational courses) I’m much less likely to skip the warm up, and hopefully you’ll feel the same way as well. I know rush hour traffic and family obligations are often more of a deciding factor wether you warm up or not, but considering this, it really is time well spent.