Warming Up & Warming Down

Warming is an essential part of football. Warming up literally means the process of raising the core body temperature. Warming up should always be done before practice and competition. A player performed in a systematic manner should increase the body temperature by one or two degrees. On an average, warming up session should be completed in 15 - 20 minutes.

The benefits of warm up are:
• To increase the blood flow.
• To prevent injury.
• To loosen the stiff muscles.
• To increase awareness.
• To increase coordination.
• To increase metabolism in the muscle.
• To improve elasticity and contractibility of muscle.
• To increase the efficiency of respiratory and cardio vascular system.

At rest, the muscles are poorly supplied by the blood. The figure of supply is about 15 -20% of the total blood volume. But after a general warm up, the figure of blood supply increases to 70 -75% of the total blood volume. The increased blood supply in the muscle increases the metabolism and thus warms the muscle. The warmth increases the elasticity of the muscle tissue. Therefore, warmed up muscles stretch to greater length.

Generally warm up comprises of four sections:
• 1. Mobilizing.
• 2. Jogging.
• 3. Stretching.
• 4. Specific activity.

1. Mobilizing:
Warm up should always start with the mobilizing of joints. Starting from distal joints and working towards proximal joints. During mobilization slow circular movement are performed both clockwise and anti clockwise until the joint is felt to move smoothly. Circular movements help joint motion by lubricating the entire joint with synovial fluid.
Joint can be mobilized in a following order or in reverse of this order:
• Fingers and knuckles.
• Wrist.
• Elbows.
• Shoulder.
• Neck.
• Trunk/Waist.
• Hips.
• Legs.
• Ankles.
• Toes.

2. Jogging:
Aerobic activities such as jogging or jumping on the spot/rope should be performed for at least 5 minutes, after the mobilizing exercises. Aerobic activities increase the cardiac output and thus increase the body temperature by increasing the blood flow.

3. Stretching:
Once the warm-up has been completed Stretching should be performed immediately because he muscle warm and more elastic. For a successful stretch proper breathing control is very essential. Player should take slow, relaxed breaths during stretching. Breathing should never be done forcefully. The best time to stretch a muscle is the time when muscles are warmed up.
Stretching section of warm up consists of two parts.
a) Static warm up stretching
b) Dynamic warm up stretching.
Static stretching should always be performed before dynamic stretching. Dynamic stretching often causes muscle damage due to overstretching. Static stretching performed prior to static stretching reduces the risk of injuries.
It should always be remembered that dynamic warm up stretching should not be performed to the point of fatigue because this just a warm up.

4. Specific activities:
This section of warming up should consist of same movement that will be performed during the particular sport event but at low intensity. These sport activities improves balance, coordination, strength and response time. Chances of injuries are reduced to great extent.

Warming-down/Cooling down:
Cooling down activities are performed after completed work-out to reduce muscle fatigue and soreness is caused by accumulation of waste products of exercise. i.e. lactic acid in and around the muscle.
After completion of match or practice if the player are stopped their sport activities suddenly without cooling down, then cardiac output decreases and large quantity of blood can't reach around the body. This causes the waste products to remain trapped in muscle. Whereas by stopping exercise slowly and gradually the waste products can be dissipate easily. It is thought that right warm- down exercise immediately following maximum exertion is a better way of clearing lactic acid from blood.
Warm-down consist of following sequence:
* Specific activities.
* Stretching:
a) Dynamic
b) Static.
Specific activities followed by stretching can reduce cramping, tightening and soreness in fatigued muscles.

In warm-down, sports activities after the tournament or practice should immediately be followed by stretching. Light dynamic stretches are performed fast to slower the heart rate to its normal rate and then static stretch is performed.