Warming Up and Cooling Down

Warming Up and Cooling Down

Professional source written by Helen Laws, Caroline Marsh and Matthew Wyon published by ‘dance UK’ in 2006.

Why do we Warm up?	Why do we Cool down?
·         Reduce the risk of injuries        ·         Improve co-ordination      ·         Improve technique      ·         Enhanced psychological focus	·         Reduce muscle soreness and stiffness      ·         Maintaining flexibility      ·         Improve removal of waste of products of exercise (e.g. lactic acids)      ·         Reduces chances of feeling dizzy or faint      ·         Reduces the risk of injuries.

Warm-up

Increase body temperature because you a warm up with jogging, side steps, step ball changes etc. This causes the heart rate to rise bringing the oxygen and nutrition to the working muscles. This increases the rate of respiration too. A warm up causes the person to sweat and start breathing faster and deeper.

Synovial fluids warms up the joints and gets smoother through-out the warm up as it is quite viscose at normal body temperature. When the synovial fluid is warm this gives the dancer more free movement and mid-range stretching.

Prevents the dancer from injury as her/his body is is preparing itself for a dance class.

The nervous system becomes more alert making better co-ordination.

A warm up does not just help your body physically but also mentally. Performing a warm up helps prevent unnecessary stress and fatigue in your muscles and emotions. This give you time to prepare your body and mind for a dance class, you mind needs time to focus itself too.

Making sure you muscles are warm and ready for stretching, you should stretch at the end of a warm up but not for too long otherwise your body will start cooling down again. The best time to stretch is at the end of class this is when your body is warmest and is more pliable than ever, this is when dancers should be practicing splits, box, straddle and bigger stretches. Make sure you do not stretch unless your body is warm.

Improves proprioception as greatest awareness of joints and muscle positions, also improves the transmissions of feedback messages along the sensory nerves.

Redistribution blood is taken away from certain parts of the body (for example, the gut)

A good warm up should consist of;

10 minutes of cardio-

Gradually increasing the heart rate.

Examples, jogging, jumping, star jumps, step ball changes, gallops etc.

10 minutes mobilisation-

Smoothing the synovial fluid, you should be aiming for mid-range stretches.

Examples, hip swings, mobilising the spine, arm stretches etc.

10 minutes of stretching-

Hamstring stretches lying on the floor, quad stretches, hip flexors, MID range stretches.

The warm up should be performed in this order as you need to raise the heart rate first, work your way down the body for mobilisation and then save stretching until you are warm. Also at the end of a warm up it is good to practice proprioception to make sure your body is aware of it posture, making sure joints and muscles are in the correct position. You can do this by rise up on demi pointe, closing your eyes, or balancing on one leg etc.

Cool Down

The main reason for a cool down is to gradually change from extreme exercise to moderate and mild exercise. It is better for the body to adapt slowly, this allows the body time to dissipate lactic acid from working muscles and to stop blood pooling.

Lactic Acid- is a waste product of anaerobic respiration and can lead to achy and stiff muscles. Oxygen breaks down lactic acid therefore a cool down should include low impact cardio.

A sudden stop in exercise without gradually decreasing the heart rate can slowly cause many heart issues.

For example blood pooling, when you suddenly stop exercising with the heart rate decreasing gradually the heart pumps out the blood at a high rate therefore pooling into the muscles rather than being pumped back to the heart.

Blood pooling effects can be dizzy, fainting and nausea.

A cool down allows you to mentally and physically relax.

Cooling down allows your heart rate and breathing to return towards levels slowly.

A cool down consists of slowing down the pace of your exercise for a minimum of 5-10 minutes then follow this with some mobilisation and stretching out the muscles.

The best time to stretch is after you have cooled down, your muscles are still warm and respond favourably and there is less of a risk of injury. PNF stretching would be the best for after a cool down. Practicing your PNE (proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation) after a cool down is also helpful.

PNF means the small sensors that identify muscle tension (proprioceptors) are used to achieve maximum elongation of the muscle without initiating and stretch reflex.

The Physiological Basics

Heart and Lungs

When a dancer’s body engages in physical activity, the working muscles start to demand more oxygen. Blood circulation therefore starts to increase to meet this demand, the blood is routed to the muscles that need it the most. This starts to increase the core body and muscle temperature.

If the speed and intensity of exercise was to increase too quickly, the human body cannot keep up with the demand of oxygen, this then means the muscles will start producing energy anaerobically which means without oxygen. This will then lead to the build-up of lactic acids which contributes to making the dancer feel tired and will cause their muscles to stiffen.

It is important to make sure a dancer’s breathing, circulation and energy production increases gradually, this will be done so if an effective warm up takes place. So when dance activity begins all systems are working at the correct level to meet the increased demand for energy. This makes sure the aerobic system is ready and working.

After finishing your energetic dance sequence it is important to lower the heart rate gradually, if a dancer suddenly stops the heart carries on pumping blood around the body at a high rate, without the muscle action in the legs and feet the body cannot help pump the blood back to the heart. This can then lead to blood pooling, which can make the dancer feel faint. Also the by-products of exercise will not be washed out of the muscle beds as effectively, which may result in sore muscles the following day.

A good cool down will help the body in a few ways, firstly reducing the dance activity slowly will allow the blood in the muscles to redistribute through-out the body, and the muscle energy levels will be replenished.