A “warm-up” routine is valuable for almost any physical activity, but is particularly important for curlers for two main reasons: the cool air temperature inside the rink, and the stress placed on the lower joints during a delivery.
The following list of the benefits of warm-up activities was originally authored by fitness specialist Len Kravitz and published in Idea Today (14) in 1996, and is distributed by the Fitness Ontario Leadership Program. The benefits of warm-up include:
- It increases the core body temperature, possibly by up to 2 degrees Celsius, through making the body’s muscles use more energy.
- It helps prevent injuries by increasing muscle elasticity.
- It enhances muscle contraction simply by their rise in temperature.
- It improves oxygen supply to muscles by increasing the body’s blood flow.
- It enhances the body’s burning of calories.
- It reduces perceived exertion by mitigating the difference between at-rest activity and strenuous exercise.
- It heightens heat loss by triggering the body’s processes in the dissipation of heat (ie. sweating). For curlers, the increase in body temperature, along with the body’s attempts to reduce it through sweating, must be managed with appropriate clothing to prevent both overheating and chills.
- It improves heart function by bringing additional blood flow to the heart prior to the beginning of strenuous activity.
- It increases energy production.
Much has been written about warm-up routines in the past few years as our collective understanding of the body’s physiology has improved, particularly with respect to stretching. That’s the subject of my next post.