Book excerpt: Table of Contents Preface Getting Started Chapter # 1: Benefits of Warming Up Chapter # 2: Stretching Chapter # 3: Types of Stretches How to Warm Up Chapter # 1: Intro Chapter # 2: Mobility Exercises Chapter # 3: Pulse Raising, Targeted Mobility and Final Pulse Raising Chapter # 4: Cooling Down Chapter # 5: Upper Body Stretches Chapter # 6: Lower Body Stretches Targeted Warm ups Chapter # 1: Low Impact Exercises Chapter # 2: Basic Aerobic Exercises Chapter # 3: Cardio-Kickboxing Exercises Conclusion References Author Bio Publisher Preface Performing warm ups before any high intensity physical activity, sports, or exercises, is important in a multitude of ways. A good, fulfilling session of warm up exercises will make sure that the body does not go into the energy-demanding phase of an exercise or workout too swiftly. There will be a gradual increase in your heart rate,which will steadily increase the flow of blood in your muscles, and other parts of the body, preparing you both physically and mentally for an injury free exercise. The importance of a workout can be compared simply to the analogy of a car being driven in cold weather; what people tend to do is, allow their cars to warm up before picking up high speeds. The same principle, in a slightly modified sense, applies to a workout. For a strenuous and demanding workout, its best to physically prepare yourself, by steadily increasing the body’s temperature with patience. By giving your body a nice warm up with many of the techniques like jogging, walking, etc., you are in fact improving blood circulation within different joints, muscles, and tendons, much like oiling a squeaky wheel. With the increased blood flow, the heart rate also rises and the muscles warm up to prevent any injury from taking place. Moreover, warm up exercises also have a psychological affect and they prepare your brain by easing it into the physical activities that are soon to follow. This is extremely helpful in exercises like weight lifting, high intensity running, and aerobics. The body and mind thus synchronize and ease into the workout making sure that no part of the body faces any injury as a result of the exercises that are soon to follow. Keep reading on and find out the details of a warm up.