Warm Up Mistakes You Didn't Know You Were Still Making Back

You’re an athlete or a fitness enthusiast: you’ve either just started a new routine or have been working out for a long time. Fitness isn’t just something you do, it’s a part of you. But did you know that you could be making common warm-up mistakes - that are hurting your body?

Everyone knows that warming up is a very important part of the fitness process. Unfortunately, even though we know that, many of us don’t take the time to actually warm up properly. Or, we’ll warm up properly for a day or two then quickly forget about it. Or we’ll do it sporadically.

Not warming up properly is a great way to get injured. It’s also a great way not to adequately prepare your body for the workout that’s about to come. Here, we’ll discuss some common warm up mistakes that you should avoid. After all, it’s your body - you should treat it wisely!

Mistake 1: Warming Up Inconsistently You can’t warm up one day a week when you are working out six days a week and expect it to do any good for your body. Too often, we warm up on the days we feel like we really should - which we often do because we haven’t been warming up in the days prior! To combat this, change your mindset: start thinking of warming up as just as important as your actual work out, because it is! The goal of working out is to build a healthier mind and body and the goal of warming up is to be able to do that consistently for a long time to come.

Mistake 2: Speeding Through Your Warm Up It’s not enough to phone it in with your warm up. Many athletes have a few basic warm up moves that they know they need to do, and because of this, rush their way through the warm up to get it done as quickly as possible. This is a recipe for disaster. Be as thorugh on your warm up as you are with your workout. Go slowly to ensure you are getting the benefits you need from warming up.

Mistake 3: Only Focusing On One Part Of The Body A couple of leg stretches, a quick toe touch and you’re good to go, right? Wrong! One of the biggest mistakes in warming up is failing to warm up each part of the body that you will be working out. It’s not enough to have the same exact warm up routine every day. Some days, you should be focusing more on the parts of the body that will really get worked during your exercise. Don’t forget to give all the parts of your body equal attention.

Mistake 4: Not Getting Your Head In The Game Believe it or not, it’s just as important to work out (and warm up!) your mind as it is to work out your body. Your exercise time should be sacred and special and important: by speeding through your warm up and neglecting to prepare your brain for what’s about to come, you won’t be able to fully internalize the benefits of your work out. So give yourself a minute to pause and prep!

Warming up is, clearly, an extremely important part of your routine. Don’t neglect it: your body will thank you