Best practice dictates that any training session should start with a warm-up.
The reasons for this are many. A warm-up not only prepares the athlete for the activity to come - but the physiological effect and body’s production of adrenalin, increases the heart rate and dilates capillaries, it also increases the temperature of the body as a whole.
This increase in body temperature results in increased elasticity of the muscles- thereby reducing the potential incidence of injury.
The warm-up has several positive functions. In summary the functions of a warm up are as follows:
- avoidance / minimization of injury
- improving performance, through body and mentalpreparedness
- increasing flexibility and elasticity
- familiarization of the ergometer and its exercise action
A pre-warm-up can be undertaken prior to getting onto the Ergometer with the goal to gently raise the heart rate, ready for activity. This can be achieved through gentle jogging, perhaps some interactive ball games, skipping.
The pre-warm-up should be carried out for about approx. 5 minutes, followed by some gentle stretching exercises.
Stretches should be all-over stretches, taking care to stretch muscles throughout the whole body not just the arms! This can then be transitioned to some SUP specific warm-up activity on the Ergometer.