Ready for anything
And I'm just getting warmed up
Ready? Okay! I can still hear the cheerleaders at my high school, arrayed in two straight lines, poms on hips, perky smiles beaming, shouting this together. Sort of a 3-2-1 countdown to let us know they were about to begin.
I was there with the pep band, mostly to watch the football game, but I admired our cheer squad. There at every game and in every kind of weather, ready for the first down, the touch down, the completed pass or the tough tackle that denied the other team a score. Even when temperatures were well below freezing, they somehow stayed warm enough to jump, kick, cartwheel or summersault from atop the pyramid. Even in those short skirts, tank tops and light jackets … amazing.
What’s the key to their successful performance? Warm-up and Practice have prepared them to be ready. Warm-up, in spite of its name, has only a little to do with increasing our body temperature (which cools rather quickly on a cool night or in a cool breeze).
Warm-up accomplishes four things:
It raises our body temperature slightly.
It enhances blood flow to working muscles.
It lubricates the joints enhancing movement.
It activates the connection of our brain to our muscles
Notably missing from this list is stretching, which is what I most commonly see people doing when they “warm up” before their game/match/race. Usually it involves a bouncing movement (please don’t!) or an excruciating extension and hold of some body part which, if not warmed up, does more harm than good.
There’s a lot of confusion out there about the proper way to warm up before you play. And warm-up may actually be the most important 5-10 minutes of your effort, because it makes you ready to perform your best. And, of course, as you know here at Fit2Finish, the body has something more to teach us. (To head straight to the lesson for today, scroll down to: So are you ready?)
Warm-up raises our body temperature slightly.
General movement like walking, jogging, high knees, butt kicks, jumping jacks and calisthenics engage the large muscles to contract, using energy and generating heat. Voila, you feel warmer.
Warm-up enhances blood flow to working muscles.
The contraction of the large muscles increases blood circulation to and through the active muscles, helping circulate the warmed blood throughout the body. The activated muscles are preferentially supplied, while blood flow is reduced to organs at rest. (Like the digestive organs; thus, the likelihood of stomach cramps after that big lunch you just ate before taking the court.)
Warm-up helps lubricate the joints enhancing movement.
Synovial joints involved in skeletal movement are specialized to squeeze a viscous fluid into the joint to lubricate it for movement. Increased temperature renders this synovial fluid less viscous, thus more fluid, enhancing its flow. (Think, heating your pancake syrup from goopy to pourable.)
Warm-up activates the connection between our brain and our muscles.
This is the part of warm up that has nothing much to do with temperature, yet it may be the most important. It gets the electrical signaling going between your brain — what to do! — and your body — doing it! Well-designed warm-up fine tunes this signaling, making sure the messages sent and received are accurate and reproducible.
A good warm-up, you might say, wakes up what you’ve been practicing.
*So, are you ready?
You may be warm, even hot under the collar, but that doesn’t make you ready. In fact, being steamed may cause you to overshoot your target.
Your heart may be pumping, even racing, but that doesn’t make you ready. In fact, over-excitement or anxiety can leave you less prepared to perform.
Your joints may be supple, and you may even be crouched and ready to spring, but that kind of readiness doesn’t last. And reflexive response wastes your preparation.
Yes, readiness needs all of these, but its bedrock is preparation through learning and resolute practice of:
the skills
the tools
the techniques
the react and respond
the performance even when fatigued
the confidence even when it gets hard
Today, perhaps more than ever before, we need to prepare for the unpredictable opponent and the uncertain situation. We must do this while keeping our temps from rising too high, our hearts from racing too fast and our joints from giving out under our weight. Proper preparation and practice accomplish this, in our brains, our bodies and in our behaviors.
Preparation and Practice don’t teach us what to do; they make us ready to do it.
Ready? Okay!
Finish well, my friends.
Dr. Wendy