Warming-up for Life

Yesterday I went out to the back yard with the dog so she could relieve herself after sleeping. I was standing on the patio enjoying the cool morning when I suddenly had something land on my bare back. I twisted around really fast to find out what had a hold on me. It was one of those giant locusts. When I twisted it took off for the trees doing that buzzy laugh thing that they do. This morning I was sore through my shoulders from that fast twist.

When I do my workouts I do a lot of twists to work my core muscles. I do 50 reps each direction of a motion like I have a hulla hoop. Then I turn to each side and push as though pushing away an attacker, one of my old martial arts core exercises, I do 50 reps each direction. Last is full around twists to face directly behind, I do 50 reps each direction. Even with all this work on the muscles involved with twisting, when I did that fast twist cold I ended up with soreness. No matter how developed and toned a muscle group is, if you try to perform without warming up it can be desasterous.

Now there is no way we can always be prepared for an emergency, stuff is going to happen. But we can make sure that even on rest days we do some easy stretches and dynamic stretches to warm up for the day. Dynamic stretches are things like: bending side to side while reaching for the sky, or knee raises and swinging your legs easy from side to side. Basicly easy motions for all your muscle groups to warm up for your days activities.

We are taught from children to pick up heavy stuff by bending our knees so we don't strain our back. We should also teach our children to warm up a muscle group before doing any lifting. This is good insurance against sore muscles later. A lot of adults live with back pain from lifting something improperly without warming up. We can help our children and our selves avoid that misery by warming up each day to prepare for what ever life throws at us.

Thanks for reading.

Cautious Panda