Wellness Day Write-Up

Wellness Day Write-up; Warming-Up and Cooling Down

Shreya and I chose this topic because we both play sports and have always been told the importance of stretching and warm up with a cooldown, but we have never truly known why. Why is it more important to stretch after a workout and do more dynamic stretching before a workout? That was the main address of our Wellness day so that we were able to research the topic to inform ourselves and also the share our newly profound knowledge with the rest of the class. Since my three sports are different mechanically, I was interested in how to warm-up the efficiently for each sport. When figuring out the topic we wanted to share, we did not want to pick a topic we were clueless about, but we also wanted to do research that would benefit our knowledge as well, and the perfect medium was warming- up.

The most interesting aspects of the information that we researched were the effect on the actual warming up. How the increase in body temperature dissociates oxygen from haemoglobin to myoglobin which makes it easier for lungs to gather oxygen because myoglobin has a low affinity for oxygen, lowers the activation rate of metabolic chemical reactions, increases muscle blood flow, reduction of muscle viscosity or thickness, increase in sensitivity nerve receptors, increase of nerve impulses. Connecting the macro and micro aspects of warming-up now gives me more reason to warm up sufficiently before workouts and not skip them to save time.  The other interesting aspect was how there are many different ways in which people can warm up and the uses that the different stretches have on the body are fascinating. Knowing that there are four different types of stretching, ballistic, static, dynamic, and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, now has me focus, while stretching, on which ones are most important for my work out and also have I performed all of them so that my muscles are prepared for anything and everything.

Warming up and cooling down is important to a person's health and wellness because it prevents injuries and or it heals injuries when a body part is currently damaged in any way. Some of the benefits mentioned in the presentation that I found fascinating was that stretching, dynamic and static, can help a person's posture and balance that can help in later years when our bodies are not as strong anymore. The other connection that I made was that static stretching is closely related to yoga but is in a less uniform environment. That said, static stretching is a great stress reliever and also,dynamic stretching can control and prepare an athlete's mindset for the sport. Coming out of this wellness presentation, I was astounded by the mental and physical benefits of warming up and cooling down, and the impacts that it can have on a person’s performance of that activity. Also warming up not only the parts that are used but the others so that the body becomes more balanced.

I would give us a big 10 because we put a lot of work into the presentation and we wanted to share our knowledge through the activity.