6 warm-up moves for you to enhance your cardio and weight workouts || Dunnebells

If you are someone who enjoys reaping the benefits of your workout, you should know the importance of warm-up sessions. By simply doing easy warm-up moves, you can enhance your workout session and perform better. You can go for some basic cardio exercises, weight loss exercise along with stretches, and you're your workout will be much more effective and beneficial. So, before you jump into your next workout, you can perform for these easy warm-up moves to see better results in your performance, results and recovery time.

Perform at least 30 seconds of each move before your next workout.

Here are the top 6 warm-ups for cardio and weights:

1. FOAM ROLLING (GLUTES)

Place the foam roller just behind you and in a horizontal position. Then, carefully put your hands on the floor behind the roller and sit on top of it. Once you are in position, you can lift your right leg and put it on top of the left one for a deeper stretch. Then gently turn your hip to the right so that you can allow the roller to apply pressure on your right gluteal. Slowly roll the roller and don’t forget to breathe. There is no “right or wrong” here, simply move around on the foam roller and find those sticky sore spots.

2. FOUR-POINT THORACIC ROTATION

Get yourself in a position where both your hands and feet are on the floor. (tabletop). You will need to make sure that your hands are below the shoulders and knees should be right below the hips. Before starting this move, draw your shoulder blades down and back. Do this while stabilizing through your abdominals and maintaining your neutral spine. The stretch comes in when you rotate your torso. Place one hand behind your head and rotate your torso so that your elbow points to the sky and then touches your other elbow.

3. FOUR-POINT ARM AND LEG EXTENSION

There are a lot of easy warm-up moves that will require you on all fours. These are good to keep everything low impact on your body while it warms up. For this four-point arm and leg extension (also called bird-dog) start in a similar position as the last warm-up. Then, lift your right arm and left leg free from the position and as you straighten them, elevate them until they are in line with the spine. Lower the arm and the leg to get back into the starting position and do the same with the other leg and arm.

4. ARM SWING

This is one of the most common easy warm-up moves suggested by Dunnebells online fitness training programs. The goal is to wake up those arm muscles. Place your arms out in front of you and then move them laterally. You can do shoulder rolls, circles with your elbows, roll your wrists or whatever motion feels good. Continue to move your arms forward, outwards and across your body.

5. BUTT KICKERS

Place your feet on the ground with at least shoulder-width apart. Then, keep your weight on one leg and bend the other one back to take your foot to your glute. Do the same with your other leg and repeat the motion at a comfortable pace. You can do these fast (like you are running on the spot) or slow.

6. JUMP ROPE

Another one of the most common easy warm-up moves, underrated for how effective it is. This is a really basic warm-up move, and it can help your muscles to get ready to workout while elevating your heart rate at the same time to get your cardiovascular system ready for your workout. Just use a skipping rope and do a few quick rounds. You can do this at a pace that is convenient for you. This will help you warm-up all the muscles in the best way possible. You can include this jump rope move in any workout, it’s extremely effective to burn calories and engages more muscles than activities like swimming or rowing.

Use a rope but if you don’t have one, replicate the movement as shown here in this photo without a rope.

Your warm-up should be part of your next workout, it shouldn’t be something that you treat as optional. These easy warm-up moves will help you get the best out of your 8 week weight loss workout program session and also maintain your physical activity and health for longer periods. Also, with these easy warm-up moves, you will reduce the chance of injuring yourself during the workout. 

What are your favourite warm-up moves to complete? Comment below!

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