Ignoring warm-up exercises before starting exercise is a common mistake. Some consider it a waste of their time and effort, but on the contrary, it can be as beneficial as exercise and enhance its results by increasing endurance, preventing the risk of injury, improving flexibility, and many, many other benefits.

Being injured is bad. Do you do warm-up exercises, my dear? Are you interested in learning about it and its benefits?

If you are looking for some easy and varied warm-up exercises, then you are reading in the right place. In this article, since we care about your physical fitness and care about providing your knowledge with a lot of information about various sports and everything related to your body’s health, we will answer all the questions that come to your mind regarding warm-up exercises.

Get to Know Warm-up Exercises

It is a group of simple exercises that are performed before exercising. It aims to improve physical and mental health in preparation for exercising and engaging in it. It begins by doing exercises slowly and then gradually increasing the strength and effort expended. Warm-up exercises include jumping, walking, squats, swinging, and other important exercises.

Warm-up Exercises Importance

Warm-up exercises should be the first idea that comes to your mind when you want to exercise, and here we will learn about the importance of various warm-up exercises:

• It reduces the feeling of pain and muscle tension, as warm-up exercises increase muscle relaxation and temperature, which facilitates movement and relieves stiffness and pain.
• It improves performance, as it helps you perform your sports schedule and all its exercises with higher quality and efficiency.
• Warm-up exercises increase muscle flexibility, facilitate movement, and facilitate performing exercises of all intensity safely and correctly.
• It provides a better range of movement for your body's organs, which leads to better movement of the joints.
• Warm-up exercises increase the flow of oxygen and blood, which contributes to providing the muscles with the appropriate nutrition they need before they begin any type of exercise.
• Warm-up exercises reduce the chances of injury, as they help relax and increase muscle flexibility.

The Best of Warm-up Exercises

Warm-up exercises are very important for everyone who wants to practice various types of exercise, such as golf, tennis, swimming, or football, as they expand the blood vessels, increase the supply of oxygen to the muscles, provide a wider range of movement for the body’s organs, raise the heart rate and reduce pressure on it.

These are some types of light warm-up exercises suitable for you that include varied and wide movements before starting your exercise schedule:

Hip Circles

It is one of the easiest warm-up exercises, and here are the two steps to perform the exercise:

1. Stand on one leg, and lean on a chair or table to provide support so you do not fall
2. Swing your other leg in circles to the side, gently and smoothly
3. Switch with the other leg
4. Do 20 circles for each leg
5. Gradually increase the size of the circles as much as you can.

Arm Circles

It is a warm-up exercise, and here are the steps to perform the exercise:

1. Stand up straight
2. Space your legs as far apart as your shoulders
3. Extend your arms out to the sides, palms facing down
4. Move your arms in circles up to 20 times for each arm
5. Increase the size of the circles as much as you can.

Arm Swings

It is one of the warm-up exercises that is very beneficial for your muscles. Here, my dear, are the steps to perform the exercise:

1. Stand up straight
2. Extend your arms forward, parallel to the floor
3. Face your palms downward
4. Swing your arms to the left in unison so that your right arm is in front of your chest and fingers point to the left
5. Move your shoulders and keep your torso and head facing forward
6. Repeat the exercise, switching between arms, up to 5 times for each arm.

High-Stepping

It is one of the best warm-up exercises, and here are the steps to perform the exercise:

1. Stand up straight
2. Space your legs about the distance between your shoulders
3. Lean against a wall or chair to ensure your balance
4. Step your right leg forward and raise your left knee in line with your chest
5. Use your hands to pull your knee up
6. Lower your knee and return to the starting position
7. Repeat the exercise while switching between your legs
8. Repeat the exercise up to 5 times for each leg.

Heel-to-Toe Walk

It is a warm-up exercise, and here are the two steps to perform the exercise:

1. Stand up straight
2. Space your legs about the distance between your shoulders
3. Take a step forward
4. Place your left heel on the floor
5. Roll your foot forward on the ball of your foot
6. Go as high as you can reach on your toes
7. Push your right foot forward and make the same roll from heel to toe
8. Repeat the exercise 5 times for each leg.

Lunges with a Twist

It is a warm-up exercise, and here are the two steps to perform the exercise:

1. Stand up straight with your feet parallel
2. Take a large, exaggerated step forward with your left foot
3. Lean against a wall if necessary
4. Hold your feet fully in front of you
5. Slowly bend your hip and knee while keeping your torso upright
6. Keep your left knee directly above your ankle so that it does not go beyond your toes
7. Bend your right knee slightly and lower it until it is only a few inches off the ground, or as far as your flexibility allows.

Bird-dog

It is an important warm-up exercise, as it strengthens the abdominal muscles, buttocks, lower back, and heart muscle. It does not require any special equipment, so you can easily add it to warm-up exercises before starting your exercise schedule. If you suffer from knee pain, try this exercise while lying on the mat. Exercise application movements:

1. Find a place that provides you with ample space so you can stretch your arms and legs together
2. Start by kneeling on your knees and hands, keeping your abdominal muscles drawn in and your back straight.
3. Raise your right arm until it is parallel to the body from the front while raising your left foot parallel to it to the back and spread them as much as you can.
4. Hold this position for several seconds
5. Lower your arm and leg and perform the exercise with your left arm and right foot.
6. Alternate between the two sides and repeat the exercise 12 times
7. If you feel that the exercise is difficult, you can raise the arms and feet separately and not at the same time.

Squats

It is a warm-up exercise, as it focuses on the hip flexor muscles, buttocks, abdomen, quadriceps, and hamstrings. It is an excellent exercise, as it is an exercise that moves all the muscles of the body, contributes to warming them, and strengthens the central nervous system. We provide you, my dear, with instructions for performing the squat exercise:

1. Stand up straight
2. Space your feet shoulder-width apart
3. Point your toes forward
4. Place your hands on your hips
5. Bend your knees and go straight down
6. Keep your weight on your heels
7. Continue lowering until you feel a stretch in your quadriceps
8. Hold the position for several seconds
9. Return to the starting position by extending your hips and pressing into your heels.
10. Repeat the exercise 10 times.

Jumping

It is a warm-up exercise, as it helps increase muscle endurance. Here are the steps to do the exercise:

1. Stand up straight
2. Space your legs and arms about the distance between your shoulders
3. Jump while opening your arms and feet at the same time
4. Repeat the exercise at least 10 times.

Side Reach

It is one of the most important warm-up exercises, as it reduces pressure on the heart and blood vessels and allows you to prepare for exercise safely. Here are the steps to apply the exercise:

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart
2. Bend your body to the left side, bend your left knee slightly, and at the same time extend your right arm upwards in line with the rest of your body.
3. Extend your right leg for a long time
4. Repeat, switching sides
5. Continue the exercise for 30 to 60 seconds

Knee Lift

It is a warm-up exercise that helps stretch the hips and lower back. Here are the steps to do the exercise:

1. Stand up straight
2. Space your feet about the distance between your shoulders
3. Bend your arms
4. Place your hands behind your head
5. Lift one of your legs toward your body as if you were trying to touch your spine with your knee
6. Continue the exercise for 30 to 60 seconds.

Walking

It is one of the easiest warm-up exercises, as it is a low-impact and very beneficial exercise. It warms up and moves all the muscles in your body, and significantly reduces your weight and blood pressure by reducing blood vessel stiffness and improving blood flow.

Doctors and health care providers recommend doing walking exercises for at least an hour or half an hour, 3 or 4 times a week, before starting your exercise schedule. You can start with a simple, low-impact physical activity that will tighten all the muscles in your body and strengthen your heart health.

As an encouragement, you can look for a trail buddy or look for a group sports class to practice walking. The speed, distance, and time can be controlled according to what suits your comfort. Walking helps you warm up your body muscles and burn good amounts of calories.

A moderate-paced walk for about an hour in nature can maintain your fitness and mental and physical health and is therefore considered one of the best warm-up exercises.

Waist rounded

It is a warm-up exercise, and you can do it as follows:

1. Stand upright
2. Put your hands on your waist
3. Rotate the upper part of your body in the form of a circle or number 5
4. Keep your feet steady
5. Repeat the exercise 10 times

Pelvic tilt

You can try the pelvic tilt exercise before starting your exercise schedule, as it focuses on tightening and strengthening the abdominal and pelvic muscles, and here we introduce you to the steps to apply it:

1. Try tilting your pelvis a few times a day to strengthen your abdominal muscles.
2.  Keep your back flat on the ground and bend your knees.
3. Tighten your abdominal muscles and bend your pelvis upwards slightly.
4.  Maintain this position for 10 seconds.
5. Repeat the exercise and distribute it into five groups, with each group containing 10 or 20 times.

Stretching on the ball

It is considered one of the most important warm-up exercises, as it helps to achieve stability, improve posture, and reduce back pain. My dear, you will need a ball to perform this exercise. Here are the steps to do it:

1. Sit with your stomach on the ball and lie straight until your toes and palms reach the floor.
2. Extend your left foot and right arm while looking at the floor
3. Hold the position for several seconds and then you will feel a slight feeling of tightness and pain
4. Return to your first position and repeat the exercise, but after switching limbs.

You can start with a slower, easier version of the warm-up and then perform the more challenging version of the movement when you feel up to it.

Ball tap

This exercise is one of the easiest warm-up exercises, as it improves the heart muscle and achieves balance and stability. Let us learn together the steps for performing the exercise:

1. Sit on a chair and bring a small ball or any thick book or anything that can replace it and place it on the floor in front of you.
2. Keep your back straight and your abdominal muscles pulled in. Try not to lean on the back of the chair
3. You can place your hands behind your head or skip this step
4. Raise your left foot and press it on the top of the ball
5. Lower your left foot and now repeat the exercise by pressing with your right foot
6. Repeat the exercise, switching between your feet, for 30 to 60 seconds

Planks

The plank exercise can be considered a warm-up exercise. You can perform it after performing the rest of the warm-up exercises, and it is one of the best and most difficult exercises. Every second that passes while you perform it feels like an hour, but the plank exercise is worth the effort and fatigue, as it helps you improve your core strength. It strengthens your straight and oblique abdominal muscles, enhances your physical fitness, and gives you agility. There are several types of plank exercise, and regardless of the type of plank exercise you do, you must maintain an upright position throughout the exercise. Here we will teach you the types of plank exercises and how to do them:

Forearm Plank 

It is a type of plank that is considered one of the most difficult warm-up exercises. Here is how to apply the exercise steps:

1. Lie on your stomach
2. Place your hands under your shoulders at a right angle
3. Space your feet as far apart as your hips
4. Lift your knees off the ground and keep your legs and body in one straight line
5. Stay for a minute, then rest, then repeat the exercise five times

High plank

It is a type of plank that is considered one of the most difficult warm-up exercises. Here is how to do the exercise:

1. Bring a chair
2. Place your hands on the chair and space them shoulder-width apart
3. Raise your right foot and then lower it
4. Raise and lower your left foot
5. Repeat the exercise as much as you can

Wide-leg plank

It is a type of plank that is considered one of the most difficult warm-up exercises. Here is how to perform the exercise movements:

1. Place your palms on the floor, spacing them shoulder-width apart.
2. Lift your knees off the floor and straighten your legs to get into a high plank position
3. Move your right foot to the side and up off the ground
4. Keep your body straight
5. Repeat the exercise movements while switching legs.

Side plank

It is a type of plank that is considered one of the most difficult warm-up exercises. Here, ma'am, are the steps to perform it:

1. Lie on your left side with your left palm facing your left shoulder
2. Extend your right leg up with your hip and knee
3. Raise your left arm upwards
4. Keep your body upright
5. Repeat the exercise while switching body sides.

Tips to Do Warm-up Exercises

After we learned about the warm-up exercises, we will read the most important and prominent tips that must be followed to ensure your safety, my dear:

Focus well

You must think, my dear, about every movement you make, to ensure regularity and coordination in the movements and not to practice them incorrectly so that you are not exposed to injury.

Avoid stretching statically

Avoid stretching in one position and one direction, such as sitting on the floor with your feet apart and starting to bend towards one foot rather than the other. This action is not good for the health of your body, as it reduces the importance and benefit of warm-up exercises and can increase the chances of sports injuries, so we advise you to do various stretching dynamic movements.

Do warm-up exercises that are similar to the sport you will be doing

By this advice, we mean that you match the warm-up exercise with the sport that you will practice after it, such as doing a brisk walking exercise before running, and for sports that do not include a lot of aerobic activity, such as yoga, you can, my dear, do simple movements before it, such as twisting the neck or tilting the pelvis.

The Difference between Warm-up and Cool-down Exercises

We do warm-up exercises before exercise to warm up the muscles and prepare them to do various types of exercises. As for cool-down exercises, we do them after exercise, meaning they are a continuation of the exercises, but at a slower pace for five minutes. Here we have some examples of cool-down exercises, knowing that we will talk about them in a later article:

• Slow walk for 10 minutes after fast walking
• Walk briskly for 10 minutes after jogging
• Swim slowly for 5 minutes after swimming
• Walk slowly for 5 to 10 minutes after weight-lifting exercises

It may be difficult for you to allocate enough time to exercise regularly and thus forget the warm-up and cool-down exercises, but with a little attention and training you will be able to do them all. For example, you can warm up by going to the gym on foot, and you can cool down after exercise by walking back from the gym. 

Warming up is not just about increasing your heart rate. Although this process is important, it is important that you start activating your central nervous system, and look for a useful and healthy way to start your exercises smoothly and safely.

Thus, we have learned about the warm-up exercises. We hope that you have benefited and learned exactly how to perform the exercises. We advise you, dear lady, to follow everything mentioned previously to achieve your goal, ensure your health, improve your lifestyle, and exercise safely.

For more information and articles about fitness, do not hesitate to follow Farashti magazine or follow Sarah’s Pop Fit programs and challenges via YouTube videos.

Frequently Asked Questions about Warm-up Exercises

Is it necessary to perform warm-up exercises before practicing my exercise schedule and what are the benefits of warm-up exercises?

Yes, it reduces the feeling of pain and muscle tension, improves performance, increases oxygen and blood flow, reduces the chances of injury, as it helps relax and increases muscle flexibility.

Is it possible to do abdominal exercises without warm-up exercises?

No, it is preferable to start with warm-up exercises to stretch the muscles and relieve pain and muscle tension

Can I swim without doing warm-up exercises?

Yes, but you must swim slowly first, then gradually increase the speed according to your ability.

What are the most important warm-up exercises?

Walking, knee raises, pelvic tilts, ball stretches, body weight squats, forward leg swings, jumping rope, and shoulder rotations.

How do warm-up exercises differ from cool-down exercises?

We do warm-up exercises before the exercises to warm up the muscles and prepare them to do the exercises. As for the cool-down exercises, we do them after the exercises, meaning they are a continuation of the exercises, but at a slower pace for five minutes.

How long should we do warm-up exercises?

We recommend warming up for 5 to 10 minutes and then starting exercises gradually.

Written By: Haidy Soliman

Sources

Healthline

HNS

Mayo clinic 

Nerd fitness

Verywell fit

Nike