My Personal Warm up To raise my Heart rate, before I start stretching, I do some short, medium paced jogging and running exercises.

AS and A Level Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)

Warm Up

A warm up should include the following steps or routines:

First of all you must raise your heart rate, increasing the speed of the of the Oxygen delivery to the muscles as well as raising the your body temperature. (This can be implemented by pursuing various types of stretching and running drills. The pre-capillary sphincters open and close, increasing and reducing the amount of blood flowing to the skeletal muscles and other organs. If you are running for several minutes, areas such as the legs and arms, including such muscles as Gastronemus, soleus and semimembranus, execute a lot of movement so these areas are specified by the Heart and is provided with excess blood to perform such activities.)
Once the muscle temperature has increased should now perform some flexibility or stretching exercises. Static and Calisthenic stretches are done to ensure that the every aspect of the muscle is tested in some way. Squat thrusts and Push-ups are a prime example of these.
The final stage of the warm-up should include a specific aspect of the sport in which you are about to play. This way the muscles in the area which are mostly used can get used to the activity and becomes acclimatised to the environment which it will have to endure. (Shooting on goal, easy tackling…)

Once the warm-up has been completed and the body is ready for the action ahead. The muscles benefit from the warm up because they have been prepared for the activity. If you started the activity without performing a warm-up then the muscles would be cold and inflexible, not allowing all the movement that may be necessary in the game. Eventually, in the activity the muscle will warm up, however, they still have not been prepared before hand. So, a slight over stretch of a muscle could lead to tearing or damaging the muscles or the ligaments. For the muscle ...

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A cool-down is required to prevent unnecessary discomfort following the activity. It is a light exercise that will allow the Heart rate to allow elevated. The purpose is to keep the metabolic activity high, and capillaries dilated so that Oxygen can be flushed through the muscle tissue removing and waste products such as lactic acid. This will therefore prevent any blood pooling in the veins therefore preventing dizziness. This will then delay the DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness), a reaction to the activity by the muscles. The muscles may tighten and therefore create some discomfort. Basically, damaged muscle fibres cause the soreness. The start of the session should contain a series of light running and jogging drills intended to persist a high Heart rate. The end of the Warm-down exercise should be a series of muscle stretches; this will facilitate and improve the flexibility of the muscles, as they should be warm at this stage.

My Personal Warm up

To raise my Heart rate, before I start stretching, I do some short, medium paced – jogging and running exercises. I don’t sprint because the muscles are not yet ready/acclimatised this level of intensity at this stage. If I were to sprint, I could pull or damage a muscle because they are not warm or flexed and I have over stretched it. By running medium paced it allows enough blood to run to the area, warming up the skeletal muscles enough for me to continue my exercise by then performing some light stretches.

Stretching the leg muscles are essential as they are going to be the most used muscles in the body and are going to have to endure the most too. (See stretches sheet)

Key leg muscles that need stretching include:

Gastrocnemius (Calf)
Soleus (Heel)
Semitendinosus (Hamstring)
Biceps femoris – (Thigh)
Semimembranosus
Vastus Lateralis
Vastus Medialis
Rectus Femoris
Sartorius
Tibialis Posterior
Tibialis Anterior
Extensor digitorum longus
Peronius Longus

The Upper body needs to be stretched to prevent any damage to muscles from unintended challenged or twists to the upper body.

Upper Body muscles that need stretching include:

Trapezius
Deltoid
Teres Major
Teres Minor
Latissimus Dorsi
External Oblique

Stretches should be held for (approx.) 30 seconds. This is so that the muscle in question gets necessary time to extend and for blood to flow to these areas to allow the muscles to get warm. If the muscles were stretched for less than 30 seconds then the muscles would not have been given enough time for the blood to flow to the area and apply the warmth necessary to help the muscle and the stretching would not be for long enough so the muscles would still pose the threat of being damaged during the activity.

After the running and the stretching, I apply an activity exercise (an aspect of the game). Usually I have shots on goal. This is an a skill which is used a lot in the game, therefore I would be preparing the muscles in the leg for what is going to happen in the match situation.

The calisthetic type training I do are; squat thrusts and shuttle runs. (See Sheet). All the muscles in the legs are in use and it is ideal preparation for a match situation.