Warm up and stretching during exercise, what's the difference? & bull; hello healthy

Every member of the human body, especially muscles, requires adaptation to bodily activities. In exercising, this is done by warming up and stretching, aka stretching. You may already be familiar with the two terms, but did you know that they both have very different roles for muscles?

What's the difference between heating and stretching?

Warming up is an activity session before exercising, which serves to prepare the body for physical activity. As the name implies, warming up aims to increase body temperature before exercising, so that the body will begin to adapt to the increased intensity of physical movements that will be carried out.

Heating can be done in general or specific. General heating (general warm-up) does not involve specific movements, only performed by doing a series of light exercise such as push-ups , spinning hands, running in place, jumping, and squat-jump . While the specific warm-up is done by doing some movements that will be done during exercise, only with a lighter intensity. A proper warm-up will provide the necessary physical capacity when exercising.

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While stretching or stretching is a series of movements to train the flexibility of the limbs such as the back, legs, and hands. Stretching is done to relax the muscles by making them contract.

Stretching also should not be done before exercising because it does not really help the body to adapt. In fact, some people already have a very good level of muscle flexibility so they don't need to do these activities before doing activities.

Stretching useful for restoring muscle flexibility after the body performs repetitive activities or does not move at all for some time. The essence of this activity is to make movements to approach, or pass through, the limits of the normal reach of the muscles in the body. For example by standing and then touching the knees and big toes, turning the chest, and doing split .

The effect of heating

Warming up helps prepare the body for exercise by slowly increasing the heart rate, allowing blood to flow faster. This will facilitate the distribution of oxygen and nutrients to all parts of the body that need it.

Warming up also prepares the nervous system and brain to help regulate the capacity for movement of bones and muscles before engaging in activities with heavy intensity, so that the risk of injury can be minimized. The sign if the warming is optimal is the presence of sweat, which is the body's mechanism to control the temperature in the muscles.

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The effect of doing stretching

Activities stretching done by pulling the muscle to the limit of its reach, so that the contraction will make the muscle more flexible after being released. Stretching can be done statically or dynamically. Stretching statically focuses more on holding the muscles until they contract near the limit of their reach for 10 - 20 seconds, meanwhile stretching dynamic is performed by stretching the muscle in repetitive motion without holding it to contract. Stretching Static will be more effective in relaxing muscles, meanwhile stretching dynamic flexibility helps muscles to perform movements.

So, which one to do before exercise, warm up or stretching ?

Basically, stretching and heating has a much different function. Warming up serves to prepare the muscles of the body for activity, however stretching causes muscles to relax. The muscles that adapt the movement to use during exercise will be far more important than the flexibility that is exercised with stretching. Otherwise, stretching needs to be done after exercising as an effort to cool down, because it can help the muscles become more relaxed after contracting for too long during exercise.

In addition, there are several other causes stretching not effective to do before exercise, including:

• Increases the risk of injury - pulling a muscle away from its reach when it is stiff and cold such as before exercise can cause a small tear in the muscle and may get worse during exercise.
• Cannot prevent injury during sports - flexible muscles can still be injured if the intensity of physical activity is too great and too short.
• May interfere with the effects of heating - To do stretching after warming up can decrease the adaptation rate of the muscles to contract after warming up.

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