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hi everybody my name's natasha and i'm a
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my protein pt and in this video with you
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today i'm talking about warming up
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cooling down and how stretching comes
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so exercise is a physiological stress we
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can think about our normal baseline
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heart rate breathing rate temperature as
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we exercise we have a greater demand for
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these factors and so i can kind of think
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about this as a bit of a bell curve our
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intensity being right at the top of that
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bell curve and the warming up gradually
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allowing us to get to the intensity and
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cooling down allowing us to get back to
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our baseline so let's take you on a
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little bit of a journey when you're
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trying to exercise your muscles are
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moving and in order for your muscles to
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perform they need oxygen in order for us
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to get oxygen your heart rate needs to
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pump and in order for us to meet the
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demand for that oxygen your breathing
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rate goes up now not only that but as we
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exercise we are going to have changes to
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our metabolic rate we need glycogen
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stores in order to generate energy for
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muscles so as you exercise your hormones
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will adjust in order for us to respond
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to that physiological demand so why does
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warming up and cooling down benefit us
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and how do we do it okay i hear you
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there are two differences here so we've
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got physiological benefits but we've
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also got psychological benefits so as
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you warm up your body temperature is
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going to rise now this is quite
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important because a warm muscle is a
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more productive muscle why because it's
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able to intake some more oxygen we're
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able to work across our full range of
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motion and we actually get a lot of
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contractile function benefits from this
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introduction into a physiological stress
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state i.e your exercise is quite
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important by gradually building up heart
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rate actually we're able to divert more
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oxygen to our muscles and these are the
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structures that are in demand now do you
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think that's going to help you in your
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workout so i also mentioned
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psychological impact so we're talking
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about your mental preparation you being
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aware of what your body is doing and
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your state of mind as you're exercising
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preparing for exercise is actually
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really beneficial in helping us to
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manage stress but more importantly on
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neurological connections now i'm sure
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you've heard about the mind muscle
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right when we perform our warm up we're
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actually helping to stimulate those
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neurological connections between mind
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and muscle now let's elaborate more on
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a strong connection is going to allow us
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to have a greater output from those
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muscles when we're at our peak point of
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our training okay so there's a lot of
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talk about how warm-ups can help prevent
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the scientific evidence is slightly
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varied but if your body's warm if your
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muscles are warm and if your mind is in
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that ready state you are going to have a
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positive impact on prevention of injury
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when we're talking about warm-ups
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stretching comes into play and there's
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again a lot of different talk about
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dynamic stretching static stretching
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dynamic stretches directly relate to all
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of those physiological parameters that
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we spoke about before so the increase in
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heart rate etc etc however as you are
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performing these movements you're also
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increasing the length of that muscle
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across its full range of movement for me
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i like to do specific warm-ups so for
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example if i'm going into the gym and
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i'm doing a deadlift session my best
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warm up is deadlifts you got it but the
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difference is i'm not going to start off
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on my max weight i'm going to gradually
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build up lower weights nice and
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controlled reps i'm really really trying
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to build up that muscle mind connection
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that i spoke about earlier another thing
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that i like to add in is mobility
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exercises so stretching and mobility two
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key terms when we're talking about
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warm-ups stretching is referring to
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flexibility so the length of that muscle
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whereas mobility we're talking about
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joint range of motion i personally
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absolutely like to build in mobility
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into my warm-ups so the benefits of
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mobility is increasing muscle activation
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across our full joint range and then
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cooldowns okay so when we talk about
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cooldowns we're talking about relaxation
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and repair cooldowns can be both active
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or passive a passive a static stretch
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can be quite beneficial here the reason
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being is we're trying to maintain
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muscle length active cooldowns are
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things like maybe walking on a treadmill
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after you've finished training i'm just
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gradually bringing that heart rate down
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but you're still moving your muscles now
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there are actually some scientific
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benefits of this so active cooldowns
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have actually been shown to accelerate
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removal of lactose from the blood
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although this is not actually directly
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from the muscle tissue itself performing
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active cooldowns may partially prevent
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immune system depression whilst also
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promoting recovery of your
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cardiovascular system in actual fact the
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process of an active cooldown has shown
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to maintain endorphin levels actually
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give that feeling of joy
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so to sum up for everybody warm-ups and
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cool downs quite important offering us
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physiological and psychological benefits
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so gradually get into that challenging
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peak of exercise should be a gradual
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process aim to increase mobility okay so
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remember those dynamic stretches and the
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importance of those in your warm-up
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remember that warm-ups can be general or
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they can be specific remember when
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you're doing your exercise think about
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develop those neural pathways that you
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will be using at a higher intensity
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within your program and when we talk
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about cooldowns you're wanting to
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gradually return to baseline keep those
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endorphin levels high and the other
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thing about your cooldown is it gives
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you a chance to reflect on your workout
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what have you achieved what can you do
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how can you prepare yourself for next
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time so i've been natasha thank you for
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joining me if you have any questions
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please drop them in the comments and
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before you go please remember to like
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and subscribe to the my protein channel
