Exercise

Warm Up Exercises For Cardio

May 6, 2009
By J White

For rapid weight loss, cardio exercises must be an integral part of your routine. But before you jump into them full steam, you need to properly warm up. Warm up provides an transition period from your resting state to the full intensity of your workouts. During this period, there are two essential steps that you need to perform.

Two Essential Steps For Warm Up

Stretching It is important to have a range of motion in your limbs during your cardio exercises. The best way to accomplish this is through stretching. The main purpose of stretching is to increase flexibility in your joints. Since flexibility declines as you age, this is even more important as you grow older.

Some basic parts of your body to stretch are your neck, shoulders, back, quads and hamstrings. These parts are where injuries and soreness frequently occur, so at a minimum you want to at least stretch them.

While stretching also make sure you are taking deep breaths to help you relax and increase oxygen to your blood cells. Also practice maintaining proper posture during each stretch and avoid locking out your joints.

Slow Walking Warming up your body is essential before you start your intense cardio. The best way to do this is by slow walking for at least 5-10 minutes. If you are in a gym, you can use a treadmill.

Also if you are working out in a cool environment, you should give yourself a longer period of time to warm your body up.

Slow walking should also be included even if you are just planning a brisk walk. Even though this is a low impact aerobic exercise, you can still injure yourself.

After completing these two steps, you should now be ready to go into the high intensity workout phase of your cardio exercises and start burning that extra fat.

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