In this video, I'm going to explain how a proper warm-up helps to prevent injuries.
And then we're going to look at, what do I mean with a proper warm-up? What are the components
that you have to include in your warm-up to get the benefit that it will help prevent injuries?
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Maryke. I'm one of the physiotherapists from
sports-injury-physio.com, where you can get online physiotherapy assessment as well as treatment for
your injuries. Have a look at the description of this video if you want the link to our website.
Doing a proper warm-up routine before playing sports has been shown to decrease general injury
risk for sports teams by 30% and severe injuries by up to 50%. And this includes sprains and
strains; and for rugby, it's even been shown to decrease concussion risk. So, how does it do this?
Well, the first thing is, a good warm-up routine will give you the range of motion you need during
your sport. So, when we think of range of motion, it's basically how far your legs should be able
to move comfortably without restriction. Or, if you're doing a sport that involves the upper body,
how far your arms should be able to move. And range of movement relies on two things. One is,
the muscles should be able to lengthen through the full range; if they can't do that
quickly enough or easily enough, you may end up getting an acute muscle strain.
And your joints also need to be able to move through the range of motion they should be moving;
and a good warm-up helps to lubricate the joints and get that range of motion going.
Now, the second thing is, they warm the muscles up and they allow them to contract better.
And then lastly – and this is actually the most important thing as well – is,
it wakes the nervous system up. Now, it doesn't matter how strong your muscles are, you can't
contract them properly if the nerves that supply them aren’t firing as well as they should.
Our bodies are quite clever; it doesn't like to waste energy. So, if you look at a muscle,
every single muscle fibre has a little nerve ending that supplies it. But the muscle … When
you go to use the muscle, the brain doesn't activate all those nerve endings, because that
would be a waste of energy. If you just want to pick up a pen – that's really light; you
only need a few muscle fibres to fire to do that job. However, if you want to be pressing a heavy
weight, you want all your muscle fibres to fire, because you're going to need all that strength.
So what a warm-up does is, it helps to activate the nerve endings to all those muscle fibres,
so that you can get the best contraction that you require. Also, it helps with improving how
well your brain can control that body part. So, it helps with coordinated contractions and improving
your balance and your position sense. Now position sense is … You know, when you close your eyes,
you know exactly where your fingers, your toes, everything, is? You don't have to look at it.
That's because your brain gets messages from your joints, your muscles, and your tendons that
tell it where your body is, how fast it's moving, how, how … yeah, just how it's moving in general.
A decrease in position sense has been shown to predispose you to certain running injuries
and especially strains as well. So, if you can improve your position sense before you play sport,
you can reduce your injuries. Now, you’ll notice in the bits before, I said “proper warm-ups”
because not all warm-ups are equal. Just doing an easy little jog before you go out and play a match
of football – that won’t be enough. Your warm-up has to prepare you for the type of activity you're
going to do and the muscle contractions and movements you're going to do in that sport.
So, what are the components of a proper warm-up? Well, the first is, it has to be sport specific.
Just doing an easy jog before you go out to play a match of football is not going
to prepare you properly for football, because an easy jog won't get your muscles firing properly,
it won't get you ready to do quick changes of movement or
hard kicks of the ball. So, you have to look at the type of sport you're going to be doing.
Then, it also has to be athlete specific. If the warm-up is too intense, it can actually make you
tired if you're not fit enough for it. So, two people who play football or two runners who are
warming up for a running session will have very different sets of exercises they do, depending
on how fit they are and their abilities. Then, it also has to match the intensity of the sport or
session you're just about to do. The warm-up you need before an easy run is very different from
the warm-up you need before a track session or a full-out sprint session. Warm-ups also have to be
done regularly for best results. The research has found that the best results were if people
did the warm-ups two to three times a week, or before every training session and every match.
A proper warm-up also has to consist of three phases. In Phase One, you want to do light
activities that get your cardiovascular system working and your general core temperature up. So,
we're thinking of things like, if you're going to do a sport that involves running, easy jogging
could be useful. If you're doing cycling, then easy cycling. If we're thinking of swimming,
it's very gentle swimming, just to get everything going that needs to be working in the main
session. Then, in the second phase, you want to be doing exercises that activate the muscles but
also give you the range of motion you need. So, the best exercises to include in this section are
dynamic stretches. A dynamic stretch is typically a movement that will mimic the movements and the
range of motion you need in your sport. So, if we think of running, it'll be things like squats or
lunges or deadlift-type movements, or even leg swings just; and they often resemble strength
training exercises. But if we look at the movement like a squat, for instance: with a squat, you're
mobilising your ankle joints, your knees, and your hips, while you're also contracting your thigh
muscles and your glutes and a little bit of the hamstrings; so, you're getting muscle activation.
If we think of a static stretch: if we wanted to improve range of motion through a static stretch,
you just take the joint into that range and you hold it there; so, you're not getting that lovely
warming up effect of the joint, and you're not getting the muscle waking up. In fact,
there's research to show that maybe the muscle can't contract that well if you do a static
stretch before you use it. However, there is research out there to show that if you do static
stretches and follow it up with dynamic stretches afterwards, you perform just as well as somebody
who only does dynamic stretches. And there are certain sports, like for instance, gymnastics or
dancing, where you may want to be using static stretches because you need that extra range
of motion that a dynamic stretch can't give you, but then you have to follow it up with
active ones. Now, if you want to know more about active stretches or static stretches,
we've made videos about those, and you can find the links in the Description of this video.
So, we've now increased our core temperature, got the cardiovascular system going; you've also
done your stretches and your activation exercises through dynamic movements. Then, the last phase is
that you want to do activities that really preps you for the top level of function you need in your
session. Now, if you're just going out for an easy jog, this phase is likely not needed because you
just need range of motion and a little bit of activation or warming up of the body. Whereas,
if you're going to do a sprint session or you're going to do a football session, you need your
muscles to contract forcefully and quickly and be able to do quick changes of direction exercises.
So, things we include in this phase would be plyometric exercises,
short accelerations, you know, that you just get up to full speed and then relax back down. Or,
if you're a rugby player, it'll be things like falling to the ground, jumping up,
getting those quick reactions. So, it just depends on your sport. So, to summarise:
Your warm-up can prevent injuries, but only if it involves the components we've just spoken about,
that it actually gets your core temperature going, it gets you a range of motion, activates the
muscles, and preps it for the type of sport you're going to be doing, and, if you do them regularly.
It has to fit your fitness level, and of course, depending on the session you do,
it's also got to fit the session you're going to be doing. Let me know if you've got any
questions. And remember, if you need more help with an injury, you're welcome to consult one
of us via video call – the link to the website is in the Description of this video. Take care!