Excercise To Lose Weight - Warm Up To Warming Up!

Though we know it's important to excercise to lose weight, most of us dislike working out. Add to that the fact that the seemingly endless hours involved are stolen from things we'd rather be doing - and it quickly becomes a chore that we want to get through as quickly as possible.

Everyone feels that way from time to time - particularly in the beginning of our weight loss efforts. So, we are in good company. The problem is when - in our efforts to rush through our workouts - we gloss over or completely skip our warm-up.

Warning - disaster ahead! Don't do it. Skipping your warm up routine puts your body at risk for injury - but then you knew that. It's amazing how easily people can rationalize things away and think..."It won't happen to me" or even "Just this once won't hurt."

Even when we know it is bad for us, or even dangerous, evidence of this sort of rationalization is everywhere. Every pack of cigarettes has had a printed cancer warning for more than thirty years - but there are still tens of millions of smokers! Lung cancer is one of the most prevalent forms of cancer. Just look at the illicit drug industry. It's one of if not THE biggest industry in the world, yet we all know that drug abuse will eventually kill us. Not to mention that it is addictive, illegal, expensive and so on...

The point is, the thought that you can skip the warm-up "just this once" WILL occur to you. Saving some time when you excercise to lose weight is very tempting but - resist. It's extremely worthwhile to allow just a few extra minutes to warm-up and a couple minutes to cool down afterward.

Good news! The rest of your workout will be more effective and actually a little easier after a proper warm-up. So contrary to what you may think, skipping the warm-up doesn't really save you anything. If you make it a practice to NEVER skip the warm-up when you excercise to lose weight, you'll get more benefit from each session - as well as avoid injury.

A warm up routine doesn't have to be a long and laborious process. A quick 5 minutes will do the job! Plus, there's no need for it to be boring either. There are a number of great moves that will work, if you mix and match them, you won't fall into a dull routine.

If you aren't planning on working out a certain set of muscles...for example you want to work on upper body strength and not your legs, be sure to warm up and stretch your legs too. A complete warm up should include getting ALL your muscles stretched and moving. Any excercise to lose weight routine whether it is using weights or aerobics requires a warm up. It's vital.

The whole idea of the warm up is just to get your muscles moving and stretched out. It doesn't have to be hard just get the blood flowing. Lunges, jumping Jacks, jogging and skipping rope are all possible options.

Stretching your various muscle groups is frequently considered as more of a cooling down strategy, but there is good reason to include stretching in your warm up as well. Plus, it can't hurt do a little extra, it can hurt not to do it at all.

Why not (if you really object to spending the time) try warming up before you even get to the gym? Stop fighting the crowd for a decent parking space! Park several blocks away and fast walk the rest of the way to the gym. Whenever you have a choice between stairs and elevator, choose stairs. You will be well on your way to being warmed up before you even hit the gym floor.

I once went to a gym and saw more than 15 people waiting for an elevator to go up ONE floor! And the stairs (about 20 steps) were right next to the elevator! It boggles the mind. After all, they were ALL there to get a workout. Heck, half of them got off the elevator and went right over to the Stairmaster.

Whether you want to lose hundreds or just a couple of pounds, any excercise to lose weight routine will start slow and rapidly build in intensity. Without a warm up, this can be risky. To remain safe and injury free, give it the couple minutes that's required.

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