Every person who exercises or participates in athletics knows or should know that there are things you have to do before and after an exercise. Most people do not even think about doing anything after their workout, I am also guilty of this. Warming up, cooling down and stretching are three important ways of having a healthy successful exercise.
Before an exercise, workout, or an athletic event every person should warm up. I have found this to be very true. The purpose of warming up is to get the muscles that one is going to be using prepared for the up coming activity. A warm muscle tissue is a lot better and prepared for an activity than a cool one because the warm muscle tissue has a less chance for tears. There are both external and internal needs of warming the muscle tissue. The warming up of the muscle tissue must be done pretty close to the time of the activity. There are several ways of warming the muscle externally. A hot tub is one of the many ways of doing this. Also a person can use physical therapy such as ultrasound or a whirlpool. Another way of warming the muscle tissue externally is to have a massage that concentrates on the muscles that will be used in the exercise. I personally would enjoy the massage very much and now I am looking forward to working out tomorrow and the days after.
To prepare the muscle tissues fully one also has to also use internal ways of warming the muscles. The internal warming of the muscles is also more important that the external. When warming the muscle internally one is attracting warm blood to that muscle. The best way of attracting warm blood to the muscles is by contracting the muscle that you will be using in a light exercise. It is very important that when warming up, warm up only the muscles that will be used in the exercise. I would say that the majority of people that exercise would stretch before their activity. I am also the majority of people who would do this.