When sports medicine professionals, like athletic
trainers, tell you to warm up before you start a workout or a rehearsal, they
don’t mean that they want a part of your body (say, your hamstring) to feel hot
to the touch. What they mean is they
want you to go through the process of physiologically
warming up. Basically, they want you to
do several minutes’ worth of light exercising that elevates your heart rate.
Why?