Why You Should Stay Warm During and After Your Workout

Sponsored post

When you exercise, you should always do a good warm up before getting into the intense part of the workout. A good warm up allows your heart rate increase slowly and prepares your joints and muscles for the work they’re about to do.

It’s important to stay warm during your workout and to cool down slowly for several reasons.

Reason 1: To Prevent Illness

However, if you work out in cold conditions, you will need to help your body keep warm with the right clothes that protects against the cold while simultaneously allowing perspiration to leave the body, keeping you warm and dry. If you’re wearing the wrong clothes in cold conditions, your sweat will make your clothes wet, cooling down your body and leaving you susceptible to catching a cold or picking up viruses.

Reason 2: To Prevent Injuries

Even if you dont catch a cold, your muscles and joints can become cold, leaving you at an increased risk of injury. When the joints and muscles are thoroughly warmed up, the risk of injury is lower, as tendons and muscles are more flexible when warm.

If you suddenly stop moving after intense exercise, blood tends to pool in your legs causing dizziness as it’s difficult for the heart to get filled with blood and properly pump it around your body, if a large amount if it is stuck in the muscles in your legs.

If you allow your body to cool down too much between exercises, the result might also be strains and sprains, as the cold muscles, tendens and joint are less flexible than they would have been if they were kept warm.

So how do you help your body to keep warm and cool down slowly?

Tip 1: Always Warm Up

Warming up thoroughly helps increase blood flow to the working muscles.
The resulting increased body temperature improves muscle elasticity, reducing the risk of strains and pulls. The warm-up movements also lubricate your joints, reducing the risk of any

Tip 2: Cool Down Slowly

As mentioned, blood tends to pool in your legs if you suddenly stop moving after intense exercise. That’s why you want to perform cooling down exercises, to allow your heart to return to it’s normal rate more gradually and help the blood to leave your legs and return to the heart.

Good cooling down exercises are walking or biking at an easy pace or stretching.

Tip 3: Wear The Right Clothing

Wearing the right clothes during exercise will help keep yor body warm and dry during exercise, no matter what conditions your training is performed in.

Depending on the type of exercise you do, different types of clothing will be most beneficial.

1 & 4: Jackets like this one and this one are designed to keep you warm an dry if you’re exercising outside, even if it’s cold and you’re sweating.

2: A sweatshirt is perfect to wear during your warm up and to put back on immedeatly after exercise, as it’ll help your body stay warm.

3: If you enjoy doing yoga or stretching, a long sleeved cotton shirt is a great choice. It helps your body stay the perfect temperature during all the stretches and asanas.