Many of the problems I see regularly as a chiropractor are caused by inflexibility. The sedentary nature of modern life tends to mold the body in the image of sitting. As a result, moving out of that position is much like driving with the parking brake on. What's worse, moving that way for months, years, or even decades is very detrimental on other parts of the body which must move more to compensate.
Muscle length is a function of two things: the absolute, plastic length of the the tissue; and how long your body perceives it to be. That perception is via a sense known as proprioception or mechanoreception, but it is essentially what you might call position sense (e.g., is the door open or closed?). Mechanoreceptors, which perceive movement are located primarily in the joints, and are triggered by movement. When one doesn't move for a while, like when sleeping, the body shortens the muscles to protect them because it hasn't heard from the mechanoreceptors recently. This is one cause of feeling stiff when you wake up.
The dynamic warmup deals with this phenomenon by gently and gradually reminding the body of how long the muscles actually are. There are a number of ways to perform a dynamic warmup, but they all involve loose, relaxed swinging movements of the arms and legs, as well as bending, rotating, and tilting the spine to wake up all the major joints. This generally results in having the majority of one's flexibility immediately, instead well into the workout as the body temperature climbs. Warming up this way will also gradually increase the heart rate, and when trained daily for an extended period will increase coordination. While to many people increased coordination may not seem important, it reduces the chance of injury when tired.
Over the next month or so, I will be posting the sections of the dynamic warmup for different parts of the body. Stay tuned!
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