Once you decide you are going to move past walking and do something more strenuous you need to be sure to warm up before exercise. The warm up is important because it gets your body ready to exercise. It actually warms your body up for more intense exercise and will help increase your flexibility and reduce your risk of injury. Most authorities recommend a 5-10 minute warm up.
There are many ways you can warm up. Light jogging is good, as are jumping jacks. Doing some shadow boxing and light kicks are good. Doing range of motion exercises like arm circles, arm swings, and knee taps are good. Doing inchworms and bear crawls work your entire body. See the video for a demonstration of different forms of warmups. Another alternative, if you are doing weights is to do a light set of the exercises you are going to do. The warm up should get you sweating and very lightly short of breath. Your heart rate should not be racing but should be elevated. The warm up shouldn’t get you fatigued just ready for your work out. Just remember, the exercises that make you sore today may one day be your warmup. Mike Fedak. The exercise doc