Getting ready to move
Physical Education · Early Years · The School
Why warm up
Cold muscles are stiff and pull more easily. A few minutes of gentle movement — marching, arm circles, easy jogging — warms them and gets the heart going. Every athlete does it, every time, and children who learn it young keep doing it.
What changes
Put a hand on your chest after running: your heart is beating faster. You are breathing harder, feeling warmer, maybe going red. Those are all your body delivering more oxygen to working muscles. They are signs it is working, not signs something is wrong.
Coming down
After exercise, walk about and stretch gently. Your heart slows back down, your breathing settles. Stopping dead after hard running feels bad for a reason — the body needs a minute to change gear.
Sit still and put two fingers on your neck or a hand on your chest. Feel the beats — slow and steady. Now run on the spot for one minute. Stop and feel again: much faster, and you are breathing harder and feeling warmer. That is your body getting ready to move. Sit for two minutes and feel a third time: it is coming back down, which is what cooling down is.
What a warm body can do that a cold one cannot
A warmed-up body bends further and moves faster, and it is easy to feel the difference for yourself. Try reaching for your toes straight away, and remember how far you got. Then run and skip for two minutes and try again — nearly everyone reaches further the second time. Nothing about your legs changed in two minutes; the muscles simply got warmer, and warm muscles stretch more easily. That is the whole reason for a warm-up, and it is why it comes first rather than whenever there is time.