BULKYHow to warm up and cool down properly
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A 10-minute warm-up that prepares joints, raises body temperature, and rehearses your first lifts — plus how to cool down.
Lettura di 5 minuti · Aggiornato il 2026-09-01
Raise your temperature first
Spend three to five minutes on easy cardio: brisk walking, cycling, or jumping jacks. You should feel warm and breathe a little faster, never exhausted.
Warm muscle contracts better and warm joints move with less friction. This is the cheapest injury insurance in training.
Move every joint you will train
Do one minute of controlled circles and swings for the ankles, hips, shoulders, and wrists. Ten slow reps per direction is enough.
Skip long static stretching before lifting: save it for after, when muscles are warm and respond better to it.
Rehearse with warm-up sets
Do two or three progressively heavier sets of your first exercise before the working weight. If you squat 60 kg, try the bar, then 40, then 50.
These sets rehearse the movement pattern and tell you how your body feels today, so the first hard set never surprises you.
Cool down in five minutes
Finish with two minutes of easy cardio and three minutes of gentle stretching for the muscles you trained, holding each stretch 20 to 30 seconds.
Then note any unusual tightness in your log. Tomorrow you will know whether it was fatigue or something to watch.