Warm Up Into A Brand New Year

What is a Warm-Up?

Warm-up exercises feel exactly as described – they elevate your body temperature to keep your muscles, ligaments, and joints loose.

Warming up ensures your body is ready for action, as well as enhancing the quality of your movements. When you’ve loosened up your body with a warm-up, you can safely increase your range of motion and keep your muscles pliable. The colder you enter a physical activity, the more tense your muscles are, and the higher the risk of injury.

Even a simple activity such as taking a walk can benefit from a gentle warm-up beforehand, protecting your leg muscles and ankle joints from getting overstressed from impact, which can often lead to soreness or tears.

The aim of a warm-up is to increase:

• • blood circulation
• • heart rate
• • muscle temperature
• • speed of nerve impulses

A warm-up also:

• • helps to prevent injury
• • assists us to perform movements with more ease and efficiency
• • provides an opportunity to focus the mind ready for activity

How to Warm-Up?

A thorough warm-up for ballet is typically a combination of gentle articulation, dynamic movement and stretching.

Articulation starts with small mobility movements that gradually increase in size and energy, ensuring that you are able to access all the parts of your body that are involved in dancing. A simple way to make sure you don’t miss anything is to start your warm-up with movements of the head and neck (eg. neck and shoulder rolls), and finish with your toes (eg. paddling your feet / barre rises). The focus is on gently moving through the range of joints, waking up the body and activating your muscles ready to support you.

Dynamic movement can be introduced once your body is feeling looser and more accessible. Whole-body movements such as jumping jacks, skipping or a even a movement-based game can get your heart pumping and the blood flowing to your muscles. A warm-up is generally adequate if you are beginning to perspire but are not becoming out of breath.

Following this with a gentle stretch can ease and release tension, as well as elongate your muscles, preparing your body for both the strength and flexibility required when dancing ballet. Remember to take plenty of deep breaths while stretching. When you exhale, let your muscles relax, dilating your blood vessels to allow oxygen to reach your muscles. This can help improve your blood circulation, while also enhancing your muscles’ performance.