How long warm up before exercise

Many warm-up routines focus on cardio and range-of-motion exercises, such as jumping jacks and lunges. If you prefer, you can do a simpler warm-up by walking in place while gently swinging your arms, or even dancing to a few songs. After your workout, it's best to spend five to 10 minutes cooling down through a sequence of slow movements. This helps prevent muscle cramps and dizziness while gradually slowing your breathing and heart rate.

An effective cool-down also incorporates stretching exercises to relax and lengthen muscles throughout your body and improve your range of motion. To get the most out of these exercises, hold each stretch for 10 to 30 seconds. The longer you can hold a stretch, the better for improving your flexibility. As with the warm-up, it's best to flow from one stretch to the next without rests in between.

From warm-up to cool-down and everything in between, our nine complete workouts offer you the benefits of strength training, flexibility, balance, and relaxation exercises. For additional advice and tips to help you get the most from your workouts, read the Workout Workbook , a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School. As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content.

So do your body a favor. Written by American Heart Association editorial staff and reviewed by science and medicine advisers. See our editorial policies and staff. Fitness Basics. Getting Active. Staying Motivated. Warm up Before you exercise, think about warming up your muscles like you would warm up your car. Tips: Warm up for 5 to 10 minutes. The more intense the activity, the longer the warm-up. Sign up for free, and stay up-to-date on research advancements, health tips and current health topics, like COVID, plus expert advice on managing your health.

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This content does not have an Arabic version. See more conditions. Healthy Lifestyle Fitness. Products and services. Aerobic exercise: How to warm up and cool down Done correctly, warming up and cooling down may offer help in reducing your risk of injury and improving your athletic performance. By Mayo Clinic Staff. Thank you for Subscribing Our Housecall e-newsletter will keep you up-to-date on the latest health information. Please try again. Warming up pumps nutrient-rich, oxygenated blood to your muscles and speeds up your heart rate and breathing.

Adding extra weight to your body weight can cause damage in the long term if you're not prepared for it. Estaba recommends 5, 10 or 15 minutes as an effective time to warm up before lifting. If you're attempting to hit a PR personal record , you can do a longer warm up to ensure your muscles are properly prepared. However, if you have a lighter lifting day, a shorter warm-up will suffice. An effective running warm-up should raise your core body temperature.

Here are some options, depending on the kind of run you have planned:. HIIT is all about working out as hard as you can before resting up for the next round, so your warm up ease you into high intensity so you can train hard without injuring yourself.