Train Right with Dynamic Warmups

Reduce the risk of injury before you grab the weights with these warmup exercises.

Remember high school gym? Running laps around the track because you mouthed off to the gym teacher was meant to be a punishment, but the joke was really on him. While you ran around the track and watched your friends stretch their hamstrings, you were doing what’s called a dynamic warmup. (Well, sort of.) A dynamic warmup consists of exercises you do before training that mimic the movements you're going to do while training. These exercises loosen your muscles and tendons, increase blood flow throughout your body, and activate your nervous system so you’re ready for action. Dynamic exercises are typically better to do before training since static stretches—holding a stretch for a specified amount of time—can lead to injury if done pre-workout. (That’s why they’re better left for after your workout when you need to cool own.) Now that you’ve grown up and have replaced dodgeball with competitive sport, it’s even more important that you warm up properly.