WARMIMG UP

Warming up: Before doing any type of activity, our body should be prepared or be ready to do the activity. Warming up is the way of preparing or making ready the body to do the task. It is concerned not only with the activities of games and sports, but it is also important for the daily living. It exercises our cardio-respiratory and neuromuscular systems and metabolic energy pathway are stimulated. Muscles contracts and to meet their increasing demands of oxygen, our heart rate, blood flow, cardiac output and breathing rate increase. Blood moves faster through our arteries and veins and is slowly routed to working muscles.

TYPES OF WARMING UP: General Warming Up Specific Warming Up General Warming Up: In general warming up, athletes/player goes through a series of physical movements of general nature for the whole body such as jogging, striding, stretching, calisthenics. Specific Warming Up: In specific warming up, athletes goes through such movements which are to be performed later on in the main activity or competition such as sprinter may go through short distance run; volleyball player may prepared his joins for main activity; hockey player with stick and ball may go through the skill which he has to performed in the main activity.

SIGNIFICANCE OF WARMING UP: It raises the core body temperature, which improve physical work efficiency. It increases the stroke volume as per demands of muscles to be used in the activity. It also increases the lungs ventilation, which supplies more oxygen. It results in the removal of lactic acid, which helps in improving the endurance. It helps the athletes to enjoy the second wind at the earliest possible.

It improves agility. It improves reaction time. It improves co-ordination. It improves the range of motion in the joints. Players get used to the ground/surface condition specially through specific warm up. It reduces tension and nervousness. It improves the concentration required for the main task. General and specific warming up results in better skill performance.

METHODS OF WARMING UP: ACTIVE : Through physical participation produces, which involve either utilizing the skill or activity that will be used during competition or stretching and calisthenics exercises. Passive: Passive warming up does not involves physical exercise. It involves external stimulus such as massage, steam bath etc where psychological changes take place.

COOLING DOWN: Lowering down the intensity of the work out/training session/competition by performing limbering and stretching exercises followed by deep breathing relaxation exercises is called cooling down or limbering down.

SIGNIFICANCE OF COOLING DOWN: When we exercise there is a lot of blood flow in our muscles, if we stop suddenly there may be pooling of blood in the extremities and cause giddiness and sometime collapse. Cooling down exercise release the extremity blood into circulation and make the exchange easier. Cooling down exercise prevent the post exercises soreness and stiffness. Cooling down is essential for recovering to pre exercise state and for readjusting various functions i.e. physical, psychological, bio-chemical and psychological. Cooling down is also essential to avoid pooling down of blood in veins, which causes fatigue.