The importance of a warm up

Hey bros, I ran across this while studying for my A&P test tommorrow. I Hope you guys find it helpful.

When a muscle begins to contract, its contractions may be only half as strong as those that occur later in response to stimuli of the same strength. During these periods, a tracing shows a staircase pattern called treppe. Treppe reflects the increasing availability of Ca+2 ions in the sarcoplasm; more Ca+2 ions expose more active sites on the thin filaments for cross bridge attachement (mysoin and actin). Additionally, as the muscle begins to work and liberates heat, its enzymes become more efficient and the muscle becomes more pliable. Together, these factors produce a slightly stronger contraction with each successive stimulus during the initial phase of muscle activity. This is the basis of a warm up period required of athletes. (Elaine N. Marieb)



So basically what its saying is as the muscle warms up, you get stronger contractions, which then stimulates the muscle for growth.

Yep, from a physiological standpoint, you should be your strongest about your 2nd or 3rd set because of the mechanisms you listed above.

So for you guys that are hitting plateus, maybe a better warm-up will help with the gains. I've kinda reached a plateu myself. So I'm going to start warming up with a couple of light sets rather than one light set then going directly into the heavier one.

I'll try that to for my clean&press, push-press, and incline press.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 63190

I'll try that to for my clean&press, push-press, and incline press.

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Let us know how it works out for ya.