WARMING UP AND COOLING OFF
Any time you are going to work out hard-when you have
reached the stage where that is advisable as well as appealing to you-it is
important warm up gradually first. Light warm-up-easy stretching, bending, I
wishing, slow running in place-limbers up the muscles, prepares the heart and
lung for exertion, and tunes up the nervous system.
There is some controversy
among athletic coaches as to whether warming up ever actually improves athletic
performance, but there is evidence that it is valuable as a safety measure, a
means of reducing risk of injury. As important as warming up at the beginning
of a hard workout is tapering off properly afterward. During active exercising,
the heart pumps blood out faster to keep the muscles supplied. And the muscles,
HI they contract, produce a kind of pumping action on the veins that helps
return blood to the heart and lungs.
If you stop
exercising suddenly, the heart will continue for a while to pump extra blood
but the muscles, especially those in the legs, no longer dive, no longer
squeeze on the veins. As a result, some pooling of blood may occur in the
muscles, causing a temporary shortage elsewhere in the body, making you feel
faint. Also, it appears that cramps and stiff- ness are less likely to develop
if you taper off. To taper off, just keep moving about, in relaxed fashion.
Instead of sitting down, walk about, lazily bend and stretch.
A few minutes of this will suffice. Do not rush into a hot
tub or shower immediately after a workout or even after tapering off. Give
yourself another 5 to 10 minutes to cool off. You need this time to radiate
some of the heat you have worked up. If you jump right into a tub or shower,
your body temperature will be above normal and the hot water will impede heat
dissipation, so you will come out of the bath still sweating.
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