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Warming-up is an essential pre-requisite before training in Taekwondo. Warming-down after training is just as important.

Why Warm-Up?

When training in Taekwondo, all parts of the body experience a diverse range of motions. Therefore, it is important that we prepare the body by warming it up for action. Some reasons for warming-up are:

• To warm muscles, joints, tendons, etc. to ensure they are ready for sudden, powerful movements

• To increase body temperature since flexibility increases at higher body temperatures

• To gradually increase workload on the heart and lungs

• To maximize performance

• To prevent or reduce injuries

An appropriate warm-up pays special attention to body parts that to be used during the training session. A Taekwondo training session may focus on a different part of the body than the last session, so it is important that the warm-up be tailored to the upcoming session. For example, if the session is to focus on leg techniques, then the warm-up should emphasize leg stretches. However, this does not mean we should ignore the upper body.

It is generally accepted that prior to any type of athletic performance a warm-up period should precede the actual training phase. Traditionally, warm-ups have been viewed primarily as a method to prevent injuries or lessen their severity, but they also perform other functions.

Warm-ups physiologically prepare the body for the strenuous workout that follows. As with a car, the human body cannot be expected to perform adequately with a cold engine. Some believe an athlete is properly warmed-up after breaking into a light sweat. Actually, to be properly warmed-up, the core temperature of the muscles should be raised at least one degree. This means that flexibility training should follow rather than precede a warm-up. Warm-ups also provide instructors an opportunity to teach students basic psychomotor skills and kinesthetic awareness and they add variety and fun to a class that can be quite repetitive and boring to students.

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