BENEFITS OF WARM-UP
Warm-up has several benefits. It is believed that adequate amount of warm-up is essential for optimum performance and also to reduce the risk of injuries. Even though, warm-up is a critical part, it is usually carried out without any systematic plan. In order to maximize the benefits of warm-up, one should design warm-up procedures as closely as possible to the kind of activity to be performed and to the individual peculiarities of the athlete as well. Besides this, an understanding of physiological and psychological effects will help the coaches and athletes to properly plan a warm-up programme to maximize the performance.
PSYCHOLOGICAL BENEFITS OF WARM-UP
Psychological effects of warm-up have received considerably less attention than physiological effects. The whole continuum of psychological aspects of warm has not been adequately investigated. A reason for this might be that psychological experiments are more difficult to organize and standardize. However, some attempts have been made. We can observe the following Psychological effects.
1. Athlete who performed warm-up prior to their main activity
tend to be more mentally tuned.
2. The effects of conventional warm-up on increasing
performance and psychological readiness have been
emphasized.
3. Warm-up is beneficial to control the activation level before
the competition.
4. The athletes who had warm-up were able to concentrate and
‘visualize’ their performance.
Elite athletes frequently experience a certain amount of frustration just prior to a contest. This frustration may be felt in different ways by each athlete. In his opinion, the best way to discharge frustration is with physical activity in which the aim is to avoid excessive passiveness by pochandria tendencies and over emphasized activity. The physical activity connected with warm-up thus offer a suitable outlet channel.
Athlete’s level of arousal is known to influence performance. Complex performances are enhanced if arousal can be alleviated, while simple performances are improved when arousal is increased. Perhaps, warm-up could be used either to alleviate or enhance arousal depending on the type of performance to follow.
PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF WARM-UP
Most of the research findings indicated that the major benefits of warm-up are very much related to temperature dependent physiological processes. Major physiological changes in the circulatory and oxygen transport system and in mobilization of various hormones are caused by an increase in body temperature.
Effects / Benefits of Warm-up:-
1. Activation of the respiration and circulation improves muscular blood flow and oxygen uptake.
2. Oxygen is better released from hemoglobin and myoglobin, which further improves oxygen uptake in the tissues. This acts as an extra source of oxygen utilization in skeletal muscles.
3. It is reported that less oxygen is required following a warm-up for a given amount of exercise.
4. Increased muscle temperature accelerates the metabolic activity, through which adequate energy is supplied for physical exertion.
5. An increase of body temperature by one centigrade increases the metabolic rate by about 13%.
6. Elevated muscle temperature increases vasodilatation, which in turn improves blood flow.
7. The necessary delivery of substrates and the removal of metabolic by-products from active muscles are additional physiological process that occurs due to vasodilatation.
8. Warm-up also causes a prompt shift in the distribution of blood flow within the body. This shift involves an increase in blood flow to the working muscles and a decrease in the non active parts.
9. Abnormal cardiovascular responses were evident when individuals performed vigorous exercises without warm-up.
10. Special attention should be paid to the warm-up by athletes whose events involve sudden strenuous bouts.
11. An increase in muscle temperature improves the efficiency of muscular contraction.
12. Elevated muscle temperature increases the muscle’s contractibility and also the capacity to perform work. This happens because the initial viscosity of muscle protoplasm is reduced.
13. The temperature of muscle also affects the speed of nerve transmission and nerve receptor sensitivity
14. Higher muscle temperature augments the function of the central nervous system
Several investigators have reported that individuals performing exercises at different body temperatures tend to show good performance with elevated temperatures. warm-up is very essential for those activities which require maximal muscular efforts of short duration.
The increased rapidity of nerve signals becomes important when different body parts move rapidly, because it is vital for the central nervous system to receive relevant feedback in order to execute and control movements effectively and efficiently.
INJURY PREVENTION
Warm-up is generally accepted to be ‘protective’ in nature. Although research findings on these aspects of warm-up are not fully substantiated, it is widely accepted that warm-up helps to minimize the occurrence of sports related injuries. An increase in muscle temperature due to warm-up enhances joint range of movement, by increasing the stretchability of the involved tendons, ligaments and connective tissues. Optimum warm-up reduces the potential risk of stretching induced injuries. They claim that when the tissue temperature is relatively low, the risk of connective tissue damage is higher.
TYPES OF WARM-UP
Warm-up can be classified in to the following types:-
1. Active warm-up
-General warm-up
-Specific warm-up
2. Passive warm-up
ACTIVE WARM-UP
Active warm-up usually consists of various physical exercises such as jogging, running, jumping, free hand exercises and stretching. Through these exercises, an effort is made to activate different bodily systems. The aim of active warm-up is to improve the physical and psychic performance levels by means of active physical activity.
Active warm-up can be sub divided in to general and specific warm-ups.
GENERAL WARM-UP:- General warm-up usually involves exercising large muscle groups without specific preference to the skill used in the actual event. General warm-up mainly tends to increase the muscle temperature through active movements of the major muscle groups of the body (Meardle,er.al.,1981). These exercises would include jogging, running, freehand exercises and stretching.
SPECIFIC WARM-UP:- Specific warm-up involves movements and skills, which will be used in the main part of the training session or competition. This includes specific exercises in which specific muscle groups are involved. The specific warm-up can also serve as a mental rehearsal prior to competition. The main function of specific warm-up is to prepare the specific muscles groups and nervous system for the main activity or skill. In Taekwondo the specific warm-up includes Knee high actions, footwork etc.
PASSIVE WARM-UP
Passive warm-up involves increasing the body temperature by employing some form of external means such as sauna, massage, warm shower etc. Passive warm-up may not always be practical. The advantage of passive warm-up is that the body temperature can be elevated without spending much energy. Passive warm-up can be used in addition to active warm-up methods, so that the elevated temperature already achieved can be preserved with minimal energy expenditure.
Warm-up procedure
Usually the warm-Up starts with a mild stretching of the important muscles with an aim to change the tone of the muscles. After this, activation of the cardio-vascular respiratory system follows with different exercises such as walking, running, jumping and skipping with different directions and tempo. This is followed by the main stretching phase in which all the important major muscles of the body will be stretched. The most important point to be remembered here is that during this phase, heart rate maintenance exercises to keep the functioning at the required level. After this phase once again the cardiovascular system will be stimulated by doing fast running with different directions to achieve the targeted heart rate and conclude with strengthening of the upper body muscles. This final phase is not to develop strength but to generate heat at the joints.
Duration and intensity of warm-up
The duration and intensity of warm-up are fundamental questions which depend mainly on the type of sport, individual’s fitness level and environmental conditions. In general, the longer the duration of warm-up, more beneficial it seems. In practice, the athlete should warm-up 15 to 30 minutes with different intensity, depending upon the requirement of the event. As a rule, the average intensity of warm-up is about 60% of the maximum heart rate of the individual.
Warm-up seems to be more beneficial in sports which require strength, speed, endurance and skills. It is evident that warm-up is more effective and useful if the athlete is fully aware of its effects and benefits.
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