Warming up before training

Warming up before training

Warming up before training is a very important and essential part of martial arts in particular. If you don't warm up properly or warm up incorrectly before training, injuries can quickly occur and, in the worst case scenario, you won't be able to train at all. This is particularly annoying - apart from the pain - if you have invested a lot of time and effort in training and can no longer train as usual due to an injury and have practically laboured in vain. In this article, we want to tell you how to warm up properly and what to look out for, so take the time to read through and then put it into practice.

Warm-up training can usually be very varied. It doesn't always have to be boring running round in circles in the gym or just jumping rope. It is important that you warm up the muscle groups that you will need the most later on. For example, if you are going to do kickboxing training, your legs should be particularly well warmed up and stretched.

What is warm-up training good for?

As mentioned above, it minimises the risk of injury, such as z.B. overstretching. It brings the body up to operating temperature and ensures a better supply of nutrients and oxygen to the individual muscle groups.

How do I warm up properly?

If you have enough space in the gym, you can start with a relaxed run. You don't just need to run normally the whole time, combining is the solution here. Start with your legs, z.B. lift them to your chest for one lap and then to your buttocks. Then run sideways for a lap and then change your stance, hop around a little and loosen up your legs. Continue with your arms. You don't need to stand still, just keep running loosely and alternate between circling your arms forwards and backwards with your right and left shoulder. You can simulate swimming at z.B. to warm up all areas of your shoulders.

The elbows are also very important! Continue to run loosely as usual and start to let your elbows circle inwards, then outwards. So far so good. You should now have been running for about 10 minutes and have warmed up nicely. Now you can switch from running to normal walking. Take hold of both your hands (prayer position) and start to slowly circle your wrists and your head/neck.

Jumping rope is also an excellent warm-up exercise. Take a good skipping rope and start jumping normally. So that it doesn't get boring, you can switch from slow to fast every now and then, and you should keep this up for about 10 seconds. Around 5-10 minutes should be enough if you have set a faster pace. If you are now nice and warm, you can do 1-2 rounds of shadow boxing for 2 minutes each. You can read more about how to shadow box properly here - Correct shadow boxing.

Cooling down after training

Just like warming up before training, cooling down your body is also very important. Give your body the opportunity to get used to the fact that your performance will now decrease again. By cooling down, we don't mean simply lying on the floor after a hard punching bag workout. This can actually be bad for your heart! Instead, you can loosen up and relax your muscles with z.B. some light shadow boxing or a tennis ball. Simply take a normal tennis ball and start moving loosely on your feet. You should let the tennis ball hit the floor like a basketball.