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POSTED IN Stretching, Warm-up // Comments (9)

Warm-up vs. Stretching

Side note: Thank you to all our friends that joined us this morn­ing for our Try Us Out day! You all seem ready for a full month! Sign up today!

BY DANIEL

Ever won­der why we stretch after a work­out, and seem to wear our­selves out before the work­out has even started? Recent research sug­gest that rais­ing our heart rate for a period of 3 min­utes, or longer, will increase our blood cir­cu­la­tion and help pre­vent injury dur­ing intense exercise.

A proper warm-up should improve the blood flow to the work­ing mus­cle, which results in decreased mus­cle stiff­ness and enhanced per­for­mance. The increased mus­cle tem­per­a­ture also increases the effi­ciency in which the mus­cle expands and con­tracts releas­ing more oxy­gen and improv­ing endurance.

Stretch­ing, on the other hand, pro­vides no insur­ance against injury, but is still an essen­tial part of any fit­ness pro­gram. Stretch­ing is the only way to improve one’s range of motion and is the pri­mary method for car­ing for one’s joints and lig­a­ments. For best results, stretch­ing should be per­formed when the mus­cle is warm and each pos­ture held for at least 30 sec­onds. Long-term effects of stretch­ing can be real­ized in about six weeks.

For more infor­ma­tion on warm-ups and stretch­ing please check out these arti­cles on About​.com:

The Warm Up — How To Warm Up Before Exercise

When to Stretch — Why Experts Rec­om­mend Ath­letes Stretch After Exercise

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9 Responses to “Warm-up vs. Stretching”

1. Andy says:

   May 24, 2011 at 8:19 am

   Excel­lent day at the beach. The weather was per­fect for a lit­tle run in the sand.

   Every­one really pushed them­selves hard today and we had some friends who kept the pace.

   Sorry about my poor count­ing team 4, but how you ended up with 5 more boot campers than every other team was beyond me. I guess some of you needed help with your num­bers as well.

   Look­ing for­ward to our remain­ing two work­outs this week. And hope to see some of the folks who joined us today when we start again in June.
2. Tracy says:

   May 24, 2011 at 9:19 am

   Ready or not, it is week 4 and it is only going to get tougher and hot­ter out there! But as Mary kept remind­ing us, it is beach body weather and that thought alone scares me into work­ing harder and eat­ing healthier!

   Great job to all the teams out there, but since I sprinted with team 4 and didn’t know the cheat­ing and schem­ing going on, I am with them on the unfair­ness of it all.
3. Jeff says:

   May 24, 2011 at 10:07 am

   Hated the sand, but it was a fun work­out. It was Jeff and the ladies on Team 2 and the ladies were kick­ing major butt today. Great group! We won Boot Camp today, with­out a doubt.

   See you Thursday.
4. Kathleen says:

   May 24, 2011 at 11:28 am

   Thanks to all of the friends that came out. There were too many friends to say hi to every­one (I missed get­ting to see Leeann S.). It appears that we are much more pop­u­lar in May than in the win­ter months when we are friend­less. Team 5 was small but determined.

   Spe­cial shout out to Dr. T. Thanks for help­ing my War­rior Dash injuries. If any of you are nurs­ing injuries, you should give Ter­resa a visit. Her bio can be found in the blog archives.

   Last, if you want to get your stretch on, please join me tomor­row morn­ing at the same time and place with a set of light weights and yoga mat.
5. Mary Ellen says:

   May 24, 2011 at 11:44 am

   I liked Spencer’s men­tal­ity for the relay. Why pick up just one ball when you can pick up two? Why do the exer­cises when it’s much faster to just keep run­ning back and forth?

   Way to work it today, Team 5!

   Hope to see some friends join us for June. It’s going to be hot, hot, hot!

   M.E.
6. Karen says:

   May 24, 2011 at 11:57 am

   Team 5 rocked, and Spencer is my hero! I want him on my team every time. Loved his not-so-secret strate­gies to keep us in the game. Kath­leen, I hope his desire to con­fess his rule-breaking con­tin­ues through his col­lege years. I can imag­ine that will make par­ent­ing a lot easier.

   Tough but fun work­out today! Thanks Andy!
7. I heart lamp. And bootcamp. says:

   May 24, 2011 at 4:27 pm

   Play­ing with Andrew’s neon balls was the high­light of my day! (ok, Mary, that was my last ball ref­er­ence, I promise!)

   Friends, spouses, sib­lings, ene­mies, lovers, cute small child named Spencer — it was so great to see all of them enjoying/suffering through a typ­i­cal boot­camp day. Hope they still love you all! You might need to take them out to a nice lunch or din­ner if they’re avoid­ing you now.

   Andy: my last vaca­tion at the beach involved relax­ing in a lounge chair with a good book and the sun warm­ing my skin. Today’s beach day was far from that. Sand in my shoes, in my hair, in my mouth, in my shorts, all up in my car! But it was fun run­ning in the sand pre­tend­ing to be Pamela Anderson/The Hoff dur­ing their Bay­watch glory days.

   Week 4…Gimme more! Rest up, do some Woga with Kath­leen, and Thurs­day will be awesome!
8. Kara says:

   May 24, 2011 at 5:32 pm

   I am with Spencer! and kudo’s to Andy for adding in a extra move to the new fan­gled jacks! Smooth ..
   Thanks Mary and Andy ..
9. terresa says:

   May 25, 2011 at 11:17 am

   thanks for the shoutout, kath­leen. you are a tough war­rior, and i’m happy to put you back together!

   just wanted to thank friends mike, ali­cia, and dana for giv­ing boot­camp a try! they were such great sports!

   also, great to see mitchell out there! can’t wait for you to join in next month!!!