As I watched the football team we worked (they are 8-0) with warm up, I had a few thoughts.
What is the point of a warmup? It is preparation for your next thing- whether it is a workout or a game, or even something less physical, a good warm up prepares you to perform better. Raising your core body temperature even 1 degree fahrenheit can speed up all types of chemical reactions- you tranfer metabolic byproducts more efficiently, your brain works more quickly, the synovial fluid in your joints becomes more viscous (loosens them up), your body changes the way blood flows in your body(favoring the parts of your body you are going to use)…so much happens it is silly to do anything with out a good warmup. There are many different ways to warm up, and things vary with age and conditioning, but it usually takes about 20 minutes to get the hormone/catecholamine responses (changing the way energy/sugar/fat is used; also beginning the endorphin rush, or ‘high’) which are responsible for some of this.
When I start with a new client, we have a very low intensity warm up followed by a slightly more intense workout. I tell the client that what they just got done in an hour will become the warm up that takes them 20 minutes to do in a few months. Most of my clients get more done in a warm up than many people in the gym are doing for a workout.
Each client warms up differently, but each person needs to warmup- to be ready for what is next.
When I think about life, and think about training, a question often comes up, is it all worth it? I usually have to answer- I have no idea, but it is a topic that I spend a lot of time on. Will this lengthen my life? Why do all this? I think about a life worth living, and am often on the topic of my death. How can a person live, without thinking about their own mortality? I have often said to die a death worth dieing, I need to live a life worth living. My friends used to joke about going down in a blaze of glory, I am not going down without a fight. Sometimes we wonder if we would actually die for someone, or something, for a cause- and I say if I am not living for it, I am pretty sure I won’t die for it.
So on my death bed, I want to be ready for eternity, I want to be able to look up to God and say to him “I’m all warmed up”.
