It’s important to excercise to lose weight, we all know this. Unfortunately, most of us don’t like working out. Throw in the countless other errands, work and family demands and soon it becomes a chore that we hope to get through as fast as possible every day.

So far, so good. We all feel that way at times. (Btw- working out becomes more enjoyable with time.) So in our rush to “get it over with” we are tempted to skip or at least gloss over our warm up routine.

Skipping your warm-up puts your body in serious danger of injury. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. Warning – don’t do it! It’s a disaster just waiting to happen, yet it’s so easily avoided. I’m constantly surprised at how easily we accept the rationalizations of, “It won’t happen to me” or “Just this once…”

Don’t believe it? Evidence of rationalization – even though we know it’s bad for us – is all around. Over thirty years ago the surgeon general put a cancer warning on every pack of cigarettes. Yet there are still tens of millions of smokers out there. Lung cancer is one of if not THE most prevalent cancer. We all know abusing illegal drugs is dangerous, addictive, VERY expensive, illegal and so on…yet illicit drug sales is a multi-billion dollar industry.

The point is, the thought that you can skip the warm-up “just this once” WILL occur to you. Saving some time when you excercise to lose weight is very tempting but – resist. It’s extremely worthwhile to allow just a few extra minutes to warm-up and a couple minutes to cool down afterward.

Here’s a little good news – by properly warming up, the rest of your workout will actually be a little easier and will be more effective! So skipping the warm up routine doesn’t really save you anything. To get the most benefit and avoid injury, make it a practice to warm up every time you excercise to lose weight.

The best part is that your warm up doesn’t have to be a long laborious process. Five minutes will suffice. Plus, there are quite a few moves that will work and by mixing and matching you can avoid falling into a boring rut.

If you aren’t planning on working out a certain set of muscles…for example you want to work on upper body strength and not your legs, be sure to warm up and stretch your legs too. A complete warm up should include getting ALL your muscles stretched and moving. Any excercise to lose weight routine whether it is using weights or aerobics requires a warm up. It’s vital.

The whole idea of the warm up is just to get your muscles moving and stretched out. It doesn’t have to be hard just get the blood flowing. Lunges, jumping Jacks, jogging and skipping rope are all possible options.

Many people think of stretching as more of a cooling down move, but there are a lot of good reasons to include stretches as part of your warm up routine. Why not, it can’t hurt to do a little extra stretching. Who knows maybe it CAN hurt – literally – not to.

If you really resent spending the few minutes it takes to warm up, try warming up before you get to the gym. For example, when you can take the elevator or you have the option of using stairs, take the stairs. Or, why fight for a decent parking space? Park a few blocks away and easy jog or take a fast walk the rest of the way. You can be stretched and ready to go by the time you get inside.

I once went to a gym and saw more than 15 people waiting for an elevator to go up ONE floor! And the stairs (about 20 steps) were right next to the elevator! It boggles the mind. After all, they were ALL there to get a workout. Heck, half of them got off the elevator and went right over to the Stairmaster.

It doesn’t matter if you want to lose a few pounds, or lose quite a few pounds any excercise to lose weight routine will start out easy and build in intensity. This can be risky if you skip the warm up. To be safe and maintain good levels of health, take the few extra minutes.