Everyone laughed when a week after he bragged to his friends about having started gym, the first-year college student showed up in class with a bent back. “I was so sore that I couldn’t stand up straight,” he recalls. “And I had evidently pulled a back muscle so badly that my physician forbade me from working out for at least a month.”

While his classmates had the time of their lives at his expense, calling him ‘the hunchback of Notre Dame’ and what not, his trainer, fitness consultant Kunal Sarkar, was not amused. “This boy was in such a big hurry to build up his biceps that he completely ignored my instructions about warming up before hitting the weights and cooling down afterwards,” he says.

Yes, most fitness experts lay stress on the importance of warming up before and cooling down after rigorous exercise, whatever be the form — aerobics, freehand, walking, swimming or yoga.

Explains Sarkar, “Warming up is essentially pre-exercise body activity, which helps increase body temperature slowly and steadily, rather than sharply so as to acclimatise the body to the changes in temperature which a rigorous workout effectuates. It prepares our bodies for the imminent stress of activity.” Cooling down, on the other hand, is post-exercise body activity which, says Sarkar, “allows your body time to readjust to the regular body temperature.”

How does it work? Explains general physician Partha Sarathi Sengupta, “When the body goes into exercise mode, there is an increase in the speed at which the muscles contract and relax. A sudden increase in this speed can be detrimental, causing injury, sprain or strain to muscles and tear to muscle fibres or tendons. A warm-up makes the process of increased contraction and relaxation gradual.”

Physicians and fitness experts also emphasise the importance of a warm-up routine so that the heart muscles can get accustomed to the rigorous exercise. A sharp increase in body activity may put sudden stress on the cardiac muscles, which can be dangerous and in extreme cases, can even trigger a cardiac arrest, they contend. “A warm-up, however, helps reduce this risk, by preparing the cardiac muscles for the workout ahead,” points out Sengupta.

Other benefits of a warm-up, say fitness experts, include improved performance as far as the actual exercise programme is concerned, because a warm-up regulates the flow of increased oxygen to the muscles, stimulating adrenaline and metabolism.

But how much time does it take? “While that varies according to factors such as age and body constitution, usually in as little as 10 to 15 minutes you can build up a pretty good resistance to sudden injury or sprain,” says Sarkar, who insists that “warming up and cooling down are in no way optional, but should be made an integral part of your main exercise routine.”

In fact, he admonishes those who try to save this time by going straight to the main exercise routine, erroneously believing that this will help them achieve their fitness goals faster.

On the contrary, it is often known to have delayed the process — as in the case of the college boy who was out of the gym circuit for at least a month while his back was set in a brace for nearly as long.

Slow and steady wins the race

An ideal warm-up routine should comprise the aerobic component, which relates to the regulation of breathing and the stretching component, which ought to work all the major muscle groups of the body.

Light jogging, slow walking or low-speed cycling for five to 10 minutes are ideal aerobic warm-ups. Often the warm-ups are slower versions of the main exercise. For instance, these three forms of warm-ups can precede a main exercise routine of a rigorous jog, a brisk walk or a high-speed cycling activity.

Stretching involves extending a muscle to its most lengthened position and holding it in that position for a few seconds and repeating, first in slow and then in quick succession.

Cooling down is often the slowing down of the same movement comprising the main exercise. For instance, after a rigorous jog or a brisk walk, you can cool down by reducing the speed of the jog or walk steadily, until you come to a standstill.

Just chill

• Planning to do a few laps across the pool? The best way to warm up before a swim is let your body get acclimatised to the cool water by gingerly stepping into the water, floating, paddling or treading water for about five to 10 minutes. Diving straight in, especially on a hot day, when your body temperature is not adjusted yet to the cold water is not a good idea. Dive, but only when you’ve been in the water for at least sometime.

• In yoga, cooling down is particularly important. Says yoga instructor Shyamoli Sengupta, “Ideally you should go into sabasana for a few moments after each yogic exercise and then finally for five to 10 minutes at the end of the session.” The principle of sabasana (a mudra that resembles a dead body), is to relax the body and mind so completely so as to achieve a death-like peacefulness.