Introduction
In our daily activities, we often can have aches and pains due to pulled, strained or muscle injuries. For people who indulge in the athletics, one has the potential of a serious injury and that would be the end of his/her career. That is why, any kind of lifting, carrying or reaching has the potential of increasing any strain and physical injuries (Pryce). That is the reasons why warming up and cooling down are two important things that must be incorporated in a workout. When one does this, risks are minimized. Warming up takes about 5 to 10 minutes of mild activity before one gets into the actual exercise routine. It prepares a person mentally as well as physically to do the workout. Warming up is often involving the muscles which one would normally use in a workout. For instance, before actually running, one can begin with a few slow steps and then brisk walking and finally running (Harris).
The essence of a warm up is to increase the temperature of the muscle, joints and tissues so that the warmer muscles become prepared for actual activity and therefore, one will not be prone to injuries. In addition, warming up gradually increases one’s heart rate and prepares one for a long workout. The danger of going straight into the workout is that the heart rate can immediately increase, therefore might become detrimental. Warming up can also redirect the flow of the blood to the muscles from many other parts of the body. This prepares the muscles for the workout. This warming up must be done in order to avoid any injuries. (Harris).
Meanwhile, cooling down is also important. It is slowing down for 5 to 10 minutes after one does an intense cardio workout. An example of this is when one does cycling intensely for 30 minutes, there must be a slowing down of the cycling for 5 to 10 minutes cooling down. This is done so that it will decrease the temperature of the muscles to normal level. It will also allow your blood to flow to the different parts of the body. This prevents the blood from actually pooling a particular part of the body such as the legs. This is also important for the obese persons because they may have a heart disease (Harris).
Main body
Performance requires tension; without it, muscles would become disorganized, one would stumble and fall. One would be hard pressed to keep one’s head sitting correctly on one’s shoulders. The trick is to perform with exactly the right degree of tension – just enough to key one, not so much to tie one up. Anxiety, which accompanies all performance, is not only inevitable; it is desirable provided it is completely under control. It is the delicate balance, the ability to relax under pressure, which eludes most people. That ability is often the critical difference between winners and runners-up, and perhaps the vital factor in competition at the world class level, where skills and physical attributes are all but indistinguishable. Proper rest periods can anticipate and head off tension and fatigue. And inasmuch as a certain amount of tension accompanies all performance, it is helpful to remember that the best way to reduce tension is through the reduction of excess effort—reducing extra motions and easing feelings of tightness (Morehouse and Gross, 1980).
Work periods should vary with the intensity of the work. Low intensity, long work periods. High intensity, brief work periods. Work of high intensity should be preceded by a warming-up period. The muscles that are going to be used in one’s effort need time to receive an extra supply of blood. By contracting those muscles one sets in motion a reflex phenomenon called ‘shunting.’ The vessels in the pars of the body at the site of the muscle contraction open up so that more blood can flow in, and the less vital vessels narrow. At the same time, the nerves that are going to be involved go on alert. The body, in short, is finding the proper state it wants to be in when the performance occurs – and it can only do that by rehearsal of the movements that will take place. The secret of strength is to get the most impulses into the working muscles. This does not usually occur in the first attempt. But after a few trials, one usually finds the maximum coordination that gets the most impulses to the working muscles (Morehouse and Gross, 1980).
An interval of thirty to sixty seconds should come between one’s warm up and one’s work. During that interval, walk around and shake your arms. This short period of active rest is needed to let the body recover from the fatigue of the warm-up activity. But this should not be prolonged; a wait of even five minutes between warm up and work will cancel many of the benefits of the warm-up, and may produce a kind of stiffness in muscles and joints (Morehouse and Gross, 1980).
One should work while the extra blood is in the muscles. But one should interrupt that work with short rest breaks, so as not to persist into a state of fatigue. That’s when one ruins the style and pacing, begins to make mistakes and often incur injuries. When one is tired, one’s standards of acceptance lowers and one does not recognize that the quality of work is deteriorating. One thinks that he is doing a good job, but he really is not doing it. One can get more and better work done by working steadily for short periods and then resting than one will be by working straight through (Morehouse and Gross, 1980).
Rest periods should not be too long. Suppose one is working on math computations. It is exacting work, yet if one simply stands and stretches, one can get back to work in thirty seconds and have the relief one needs to continue without losing one’s concentration, as one might if one rested longer. Even with fairly heavy work, a minute’s rest at frequent intervals is usually all one needs to recover sufficiently in order to continue at a high level of productivity. If one rests much longer than a minute, one begins to lose the warming-up effect.
After strenuous work, one should try to rest in a lounging position, with one’s legs up on a chair. If one can’t sit down, mild exercise that promotes blood flow through the muscles one has been using is better than inactivity in a standing or seated position. What one is trying to avoid here is the tendency for the blood to pool in one’s lower extremities which can cause one to feel faint and can conceivably be dangerous.
For sedentary occupations, a workplace that allows one to alternate between standing and sitting keeps fatigue to a minimum. Having a second desk or bench so that one does some of the work standing up allays fatigue. If one is in charge of a group of workers, remember that they will benefit more from rest periods if those periods are authorized, because then they can relax without tension. Industry has learned to its sorrow that when authorized rest periods are not provided, ‘unauthorized’ rest is usually longer than a scheduled rest period would be, and the worker does not feel as comfortable. Any bout of strenuous work should be followed by ample rest – at least one full day after exhaustive work. Failure to rest could result in chronic fatigue or injury. (Morehouse and Gross, 1980).
When one has lot of work to do, a long race to run or a strenuous match that could last a long time, it’s tempting to blast off – to get as far ahead as one can while he/she is still fresh so that one can slack off when one tires. That seems to make sense logically, but it is physiologically unsound. Acceleration at any point costs an inordinate amount of energy; it takes six times more energy to sprint at eighteen miles an hour than to run at nine miles an hour.
One can finish stronger and quicker if one sets steady pace that will carry one through to the finish. Seasoned runners have learned not to hurry up in passing an opponent. They run every lap in about the same time; the first also takes a little more time because of the start, and the last lap a little less time because of the finishing sprint (Morehouse and Gross, 1980).
When the end of a work period is near, there is a tendency to perform a little more intensively. Long terms of work can be broken into brief, well-defined periods to get as many ‘end spurts; as feasible into the workday.
The governing hereditary factor in performance is the quality of one’s nervous system. It determines how fast one reacts and it is an attribute that usually cannot be modified. Disease, injury and malnutrition can also permanently affect the system. The quality of other body tissue—bone, muscle and blood—and their chemistry also determine one’s limits of strength, endurance and flexibility, but they are more modifiable than the make-up of one’s nervous system. The different lengths of bones, as well as the slightly different attachments of tendons to bones, decide what activities each person is most suited for. One configuration will make one fit for weight lifting, another for sprinting and jumping. If one enters an activity for which one is anatomically unsuited, one is at a distinct disadvantage compared with others, whose configurations are ideal for the event. (Morehouse and Gross, 1980).
Basically, any sport is good for a person that gives pleasure and one can improve at it by conditioning for maximum performance. If one is just starting out, hoever, or if one has a child who will profit from some direction, it is a good idea to have an understanding of what activities one’s organism or one’s child is suited for.
There are individual differences in one’s capacity to develop attributes such as aped and flexibility. For the most part, sprinters are born, not made. Either one has an innate ability to move rapidly or has no ability whatsoever. It is difficult to improve this characteristic. What one can do is to modify the mechanics that enable one to start rapidly. The person who is last off the mark and can’t get his legs moving as rapidly as most people, should see a sport that does not make these demands, if he wants to compete well. (Morehouse and Gross, 1980).
Flexibility, the extent of the range of motion of one’ joint is also pretty much an inborn characteristics. Some people’s joints are so lax that they risk injury: other’s joints are so tight that they swim with difficulty. Flexibility can be increased to some extent by stretching exercises, but the extremely tight person should probably not aspire to be more than a recreational swimmer.
The heavier one is according to one; musculature, the greater the limitation on one’s physical skills. Added weight in the form of fat increases the effort to perform a movement, and also obstructs the movement. A tall person displaces hi centre of gravity through a greater distance than does a shorter person when the same movement is performed by each. He runs further with the same number of strides. But the shorter person has many skill advantages. With his sh9orter body segments, he is able to rotate faster and with less resistance with the same effort. His limbs have shorter moments of inertia. His errors in sports like diving and gymnastics are loess noticeable. He appears to be better coordinated than gangling peers.
Works cited
Harris, Jo. Warming Up and Cooling Down. 2008. Web.
Morehouse, Laurence and Gross, Leonard. Maximum Performance, Granada Publishing Limited. 1980.
Pryce, Courtney. The importance of a proper warm up and cool down. 2008. Web.