Playing sports is a great way to keep yourself healthy and active, regardless of your age. But as you get older, it’s important that you also know how to best protect yourself so that you can avoid injuries or other health problems that could come from pushing your body too hard.
One of the best ways to keep things like this from happening to you is to warm up properly before you start playing. Whether you’re playing sports in college or have joined a team in your assisted living facility, warming up is going to be equally important. So to make sure that you do this correctly, here are three tips for warming up for sports as you get older.
Opt For Dynamic Stretching
While doing any kind of stretching as part of your warm up is going to be helpful, dynamic stretching is going to be far better for an older body than static stretches are.
If you’ve only ever done static stretching in your years of being active, dynamic stretching might seem a little strange to you. But when you think about what dynamic stretching does for your body, meaning that it wakes up your joints and muscles as well as getting blood flowing all throughout your body, it will make sense why dynamic stretching is preferred to static stretches.
Slowly Do The Moves Of Your Sport
Another great way that you can warm up for a sport before you get started playing is to go through the motions that your body will be doing when you’re actively playing. But when you go through these motions in the warm up, try to do them at a much slower pace.
By slowly doing the moves that you’ll be doing while playing your sport—be it lunges, leg swings, shoulder mobility stretches, and more—you’ll be really getting your body ready to go through these motions at full speed. This way, your joints and muscles will already be warmed up for what they will be doing while playing.
Do Something To Strengthen The Muscles
If you’re feeling like your body needs a bit more meaningful prep before you get started playing your sport, you may want to warm up by doing something that will help to strengthen your muscles. Especially if the sport you’re playing will require a lot of muscle strength, you’ll want to make sure your muscles are primed for the output that they’ll need. This can be done by doing some body weight exercises or using weighted exercise equipment to help get your muscles ready for what they’ll need to do while you’re playing.
For those older people who still love playing sports on a regular basis, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you prepare your body by warming up in the right ways.
