Warming Up- Anyone do it?

I'm just wondering, seeing as I'm reasonably new to Poi, whether anyone recommends doing warm ups before trying new moves, etc?
What kind of things do you do, just forward spins/backward spins to get you going, and wrist movements?
Thanks

I perform poi and have decided that i really should warm up first, some of the longer pieces of music really kill!!
I would suggest you stretch out your arm muscles, and back if you're doing any BTB or head stuff. Just generaly get your muscles going before you start.

Hope thats some help
Helz

I, and everyone I know that spins poi, don't bother, but if you want to just do a general warm up that you would do before any exerise regime (eg muscle stretches etc., but DON't bounce), and more importantly a warm down. thats only if you can be bothered!

I just tend to start off spinning basic simple moves, ones that don't strain you, before building up to the more awkward on your muscles moves...

I'm with Pink on this one, start spinning slowly and try to run through everything I can remember. One added bonus to slow spinning,,,,more time to think about what to do next

i'm pretty lax with warming up, but i have for a long time thought, and have recently had my thoughts confirmed, that stretching is really important to avoid injuring your muscles, especially when you'll be practicing a lot of behind the back moves or flowers. stretches for your shoulders, upper back, wrists and forearms are particularly important when you'll be working a lot with these moves. a friend of mine (known on this site but i won't name him in case he doesn't want to go public) has injured his rotator cuff by not properly stretching before an intensive session of working on flowers, and it's had an impact on his spinning overall.

i have a number of friends who are dancers and have heard from them about the severe injuries that could've been avoided had the dancer stretched & limbered up properly. i work out also, and always stretch before lifting weights; it's just that when i go to practice poi, i can't wait and just start spinning...but from now on i will be making these arm and shoulder stretches part of my routine, especially given my obsession with flowers and determination to get btb waistwraps down. the increased flexibility one would get from stretching will also help behind the back moves a lot. so stretch everyone, stretch!!!

strechting is a must, or do a bit of yoga before spinning or do it like pink recommended, but do something to get your muscles warm before starting to spin - otherwise, like I had to experience myself, you can get some annoying injuries in different variations and they can get too painful...


have fun


tina

Warming up....

http://www.semlyen.net/cosmosjugglers/lib/warmingup.pdf

*bump*

something I found in the guardian website

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Lifeandhealth/pdf/2008/01/04/armybooklet1.pdf

Nice bump

I tend to warm up before gigs, but really this is more mental preperation than for the physical benefits.

If I've not spun for a while I'll have a good shake out and gentle stretch, and as other people have said when just generally spinning I'll start off easy instead of launching into BTB waistwraps and matrixes etc.

The thing that's odd is I'm usually really good at warming up for other stuff; climbing, cycling, tennis, drumming - i just slack on spinning.

poi is just a warm up for when you do staff

Yup

Whether it be starting off nice and easy, and then building up slowly, or when I'm contact juggling, Loads of stretching, a bit of light juggling, more stretching...

Usually, I'll do a little juggling or spinning before I start the stretching, just to warm up the mind, and make the stretching more effective.

I warm up, but not muscles-wise. I warm up in a sense that I start spinning with basics moves and 'get the hang' of my poi, i.e. forwards / backwards / split-time etc, rather than just going straight into more complicated moves.

heehee...well i know i should....i tell everyone else to warm up. but truthfully i only warm my muscles up before a fire spin - because my fire poi weigh so much more. its personal choice. i know people who run around the park first, and i know people who never stretch anything ever. and none of them have gotten hurt doing either

The most important: not to start by difficult moves or learning the new things. I begin to spin simple moves, then more and more difficult, then learning the new one (or several =))

Yesterday I've found quite nice to do
stretching with Poi in hands.

lightning,

:R

I normally warm up with some basic spinning but jumped straight into learning mode yesterday and pulled a shoulder muscle mid antispin flower...lesson learned..ish