Warming Up and Cooling Down

Safe Practice in Dance

Warming Up and Cooling Down

Learning Objective
• To understand the importance of warming up and cooling down when
doing dance and movement related activities.
Success Criteria
• To discover why we warm up before dancing.
• To find out what happens to the body when we warm up.
• To take part in practically exploring ways to warm the body up safely.
• To understand principles of injury prevention.
• To explore ways to cool down and understand why dancers need to
cool down.
Why Warm Up?
It is vital that you warm up before practice and performance.
A warm-up helps guard against injury and prepares you mentally and
physically for the task ahead. Cold, inflexible joints are difficult to work, and
are prone to injury. Warming up also helps to improve your performance.
Reasons to warm up can be remembered easily using:

RIP
1 To REDUCE the possibility of injury
Not only
2 To IMPROVE performance does a warm-up
prepare dancers but it
is FUN, too!
3 To PREPARE psychologically (so your
mind is focused!)
What Happens to Your Body When You
Warm Up?
When you warm up, you:
• gradually increase the heart rate and hence the blood flow to the muscles,
supplying them with oxygen, which allows them to work more intensively and
efficiently, with more elasticity;
• remove waste fluid and waste products from the muscles, by acceleration of the
cardiovascular system - this helps to avoid a build up of lactic acid;
• increase the depth and rate of breathing required to achieve the appropriate level
for further exercise;
• increase the supply of synovial fluid to the joints, which increases the range of
motion in the joints and helps to decrease wear and tear;
• increase the body temperature, giving increased muscle efficiency and elasticity;
• improve circulation and dilate (open up) the skin vessels in order to allow heat
loss and body temperature to be maintained at safe levels.
Let’s Warm Up!
There are three parts to an effective warm-up:
Exercises to raise Exercises for Exercises for

the pulse. joint mobility.. flexibility.
Task – Create your own warm Up!
Using the three parts of an effective warm-up:
Exercises to raise Exercises for Exercises for

the pulse. joint mobility.. flexibility.
Exercises to Raise the Pulse
Pulse raising exercises help to make your breathing deeper
and faster. This allows more oxygen to be breathed in and
more carbon dioxide to be breathed out. If you warm up well,
you will feel less ‘out of breath’ in technique class and
rehearsals.
A few pulse-raisers
Walking Running
Galloping Playing a game

Exercises for Joint Mobility
Joint mobility means a good range of motion in a

joint; this increases the elasticity of tendons, muscles
and ligaments.
Try a few exercises:
Knee bends Stretches and roll downs through the spine
Isolations such as circling/lifting areas of the body (shoulders, hips,

wrists, ankles)
Leg and arm swings

Exercises for Flexibility
These are stretches that use the big muscles in the body.
Flexibility exercises increase muscle length, prevent bulk
formation, reduce risk of muscle injury and prevent the delayed
onset of muscle soreness.
• A dynamic stretch involves slow, controlled movements
through the full range of motion.
• A static stretch involves moving to a position where you can
feel tension in the muscle and holding that position for 10 to
30 seconds.
Try a few exercises:
Touching your toes – whilst standing or sitting
Stretching your arms across your body
Any other stretches that you feel your body needs!

Why Cool Down?
Questions to think about
1. What do you think would happen if you

stopped exercising suddenly and went to
do something inactive, like watching TV
or reading?
2. What might return to normal if you

cool down?
3. What would you need to include in a

cool-down to prevent stiffness and
soreness the next day?
4. When should you cool down?

Why Is It Vital to Cool Down?
A cool-down is a recovery time that gradually restores the
body and mind to its usual resting condition.
A cool-down prevents dizziness, nausea and fainting.

If you don’t cool down, blood can pool in the arms and legs so that the heart and
brain receive inadequate amounts of blood and, therefore, oxygen. Cooling down
allows the gradual cooling of the major muscle groups and allows blood vessels to
contract gradually, thus decreasing the likelihood of dizziness or fainting.
A cool-down helps to decrease post-exercise muscle soreness.

A cool-down, together with stretching, may help to reduce the extent of later muscle
soreness. Cool-downs allow quicker recovery from exercise.
When should you cool down?

Ideally, a cool-down should be carried out at the end of a class/
rehearsal/performance but if this is not possible take a few minutes to move slowly,
check hydration levels (drink some cool but not ice cold water) and put on
warm clothing.
A cool-down could include
Several minutes of slow, continual activity such as walking.

Dancers could walk around the room in different floor patterns or in small circles.
Joint mobility exercises, as with the warm up.

Use some of the exercises from the beginning of the session.
Exercises for flexibility of the major muscle groups.

At this stage, the slow, static stretches can be held for at least 30 seconds to allow
for full relaxation to occur – do some of the stretches used at the beginning of the
session so that you can see whether you now have increased flexibility. You can use
yoga stretches, such as ‘downward dog’, as these normally involve all major
muscle groups.
Breathing and relaxation exercises.

These will calm all the body’s systems down. One deep breath is better that lots of
shallow breaths, which could cause dizziness.

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Safe Practice in Dance

Warming Up and Cooling Down

Exercises to raise Exercises for Exercises for

Exercises to raise Exercises for Exercises for

Galloping Playing a game

Joint mobility means a good range of motion in a

Try a few exercises:

Knee bends Stretches and roll downs through the spine

Isolations such as circling/lifting areas of the body (shoulders, hips,

Leg and arm swings

Try a few exercises:

Touching your toes – whilst standing or sitting

Stretching your arms across your body

Any other stretches that you feel your body needs!

1. What do you think would happen if you

2. What might return to normal if you

3. What would you need to include in a

4. When should you cool down?

A cool-down prevents dizziness, nausea and fainting.

A cool-down helps to decrease post-exercise muscle soreness.

When should you cool down?

Several minutes of slow, continual activity such as walking.

Joint mobility exercises, as with the warm up.

Exercises for flexibility of the major muscle groups.

Breathing and relaxation exercises.

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