What is warm up?

Warm up is preparing the body for a performance, preparing the muscles for vigorous actions both physically and mentally beforehand.

Warm up is a critical part of any exercise to prevent injuries and help reduce aches during and after the practice. A warm up should be always done before stretching as cold muscles do not absorb shock well and are more prone to injuries.

The warm up combinations are endless, and I like to modify them time to time or according to ability of my yoga students/clients.

What are the some of the benefits of warm up?

• Increased respiratory rate
• Increased heart rate
• Supply of energy
• Enabling oxygen in the blood to travel with greater speed and at a higher volume
• Release of adrenaline
• Increase of temperature in the muscles
• Greater extensibility and elasticity of muscle fibres
• Increase of muscle metabolism and more…

How long should you do warm up?

Depending on weather and combination of movements – usually 5 to 10 minutes.

Please check this video with gentle warm up movements which I like to use quite often in my classes. 😉

https://youtu.be/5tlrl9nGEf8

After this warm up I always include Sun Salutation which you can view here: https://lenkapagan.com/sun-salutation-best-warm-part-1/