To optimize performance and minimize the risk of injury, add a warm-up and a post-exercise cool-down to your sessions. The warm-up facilitates the gradual increase in heart rate and muscle temperature, enhancing blood flow and preparing the body for the demands of physical activity. Conversely, the cool-down helps regulate the body’s return to homeostasis, supporting the recovery process and reducing muscle stiffness and soreness.
Timing: Warm-up First, Cool-down Last
Start with a warm-up before any intense activity, and end your workout with a cool-down and stretching. Warm-ups are crucial for better performance and injury prevention, while stretching is highly recommended but not absolutely necessary. Skipping stretching occasionally won’t cause major issues, but it’s a good habit to maintain for improved flexibility.
Key Difference: Dynamic Warm-ups & Stretching After Exercise
Warm-ups should always be dynamic and involve active movements (e.g., hops, rotations, chest expansions) to increase blood flow and prepare your muscles for the work ahead. This is particularly important in colder weather when your body tends to direct blood away from your extremities. Stretching, on the other hand, is best done after your workout when your muscles are fully warmed up, making them more receptive to deep stretches.
Warm-Ups
A warm-up usually takes 1-2 minutes, with 3 minutes being the maximum for full benefits. A good warm-up should engage the same muscles that you’ll be using during your main workout, often with lighter or modified versions of the exercises you’ll do. Here are some examples:
Running: Start with a light jog to warm up your legs.
Martial Arts: A few light kicks and punches to get your muscles primed.
Bodyweight Workouts: Do some basic neck, arm, torso, and leg rotations.
Weightlifting: Perform a few lifts with very light weights.
DAREBEE Workouts: You can skip a specific warm-up and use the first set of your circuit as a gradual warm-up, moving slower and with less intensity.
Temperature and Seasonality
The ambient temperature can affect how long your warm-up takes. In winter, when the body is more focused on keeping the core warm, it may take longer to warm up. In summer, the body is naturally warmer, and muscles tend to loosen up faster. Some Olympic athletes even train in warmer climates all year round for this reason.
Ready DAREBEE Warm-Ups
Cool-Downs
Cool-downs mark the end of a session and help bring your body back to a normal pace. While cool-downs don’t have to include stretching, they are a great time to incorporate it. It can be anything from yoga or meditation to a gentle jog or walk, all designed to help your body recover and gradually return to a relaxed state.
Stretching during a cool-down is beneficial because your muscles are already warmed up, making them more flexible and able to hold stretches longer. This is the optimal time to stretch, as muscles are most pliable after exercise.
Stretching
Everyone can become more flexible with consistent effort. While some may have a natural ability to stretch, anyone can improve flexibility with regular training. Stretching after your workout is ideal because your muscles are relaxed and fully warmed up, allowing for a deeper stretch and an increase in flexibility.
Well-stretched muscles help improve your range of motion and reduce the risk of injury. For athletes, this is crucial as flexibility allows muscles to move through their full range, improving overall performance. Tight muscles can create resistance, using up energy that could otherwise go toward the movement itself. By stretching, you release that tension, conserving energy and increasing efficiency.
To explore our collection of stretching routines, visit the Workouts page and filter by “Stretching.”
The neilarey.com URL no longer exists, it redirects to darebee.com, our one and only home and HQ. It’s the same exact set-up and catalogue-like straightforward design. We haven’t changed anything but the name. The way we run things (no ads, no sign-ups, no pay-per-download) will always stay the same. We are a dedicated lot and this project means everything to us.
This place started out as a personal blog, a single person’s initiative. With time, more people joined in to help maintain and run this website - it became a team effort and a shared responsibility. Calling it neilarey.com was no longer appropriate so I proposed we changed it to something that would reflect our spirit and how we do things – that’s how DAREBEE was born.
We dare to be here, we dare to stand for what we believe matters and try our very best to make a positive impact on the world. For all of us from the core DAREBEE team fitness is more than just about looking good – it’s about feeling good, being in control of our bodies and enjoying being alive. It is also about our identities, how we see ourselves and what we want to bring into the world. You will not find a single ad here or an ulterior agenda – everything is exactly what it looks like.
We believe that fitness should not be complicated, it should not be boring and it should not cost a fortune. It should be made this accessible so everyone has access to it no matter their circumstances. As Darebees we make it our purpose to make it so.
Whoever you are whatever your reasons you are welcome here.
Neila | Darebee Team
We believe in the value of the collaborative web so we are open to collaborative projects and non-profit association.
Modifications
We provide customised materials for schools, non-profit organisation and fundraisers. If you need slightly modified or translated routines you can contact us and we will be happy to help. There is no cost associated with any of it.
Example: reducing number of reps per set and lowering exercise difficulty level for teens.
Expert Collaborations
Although most of our core team members have extended experience in fitness, running and martial arts we can’t cover all subjects (e.g. professional sports or injury rehabilitation). If you would like to work with us and you are an expert in the following areas:
- - pain relief and injury rehabilitation
- - professional sports
- - swordsmanship (we are particular interested in expanding our sword routines)
- - pre and postnatal fitness
- - stretching and yoga
Please contact us here.
We try really hard to provide everyone here with the best advice we possibly can. Everything we do is free and it will always be the case because we believe that all fitness related information should be free and available to anyone who needs it so any collaboration with us is non-commercial.
How does it work
We design a routine based on the information you provide. Along with a detailed description of a routine we also require photographs or a video to make sure we draw the exact execution of every move. The more information you provide the better. We then design a routine according to your exact specification for the subject. We work with you until we get it right.
Collaborative routines are always marked “designed in collaboration with”, you get full credit for it and we will also link back (if you have a website). We can also provide you with your own branded version (with your logo and colours) if you need for your personal or professional use in high resolution. See an example of a collaborative workout here.
DAREBEE is a non-profit fitness resource run and maintained by volunteers and fitness enthusiasts. All of the information here is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It is not provided as a professional service or as medical advice for specific conditions, but rather provides general information about certain health and fitness benefits.
What we say here is not a substitute for professional medical advice. If you have, or suspect you may have, a health condition, you should consult your health care provider for specific medical advice. Everything published on this site has been researched prior to publication. Nevertheless it still constitutes an opinion provided for informational only purposes and should be treated as such.
All of the trademarked routines on the website are designed as fandom tributes, are not affiliated with the trademark in any way and are designed for motivational purposes only.
