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Often on the forums I see suggestions of using a hot washcloth, shower, or cup of hot water for your warm-up. While I myself had started by doing this during my initial routine 6 months ago, I have always questioned its effectiveness.
As we know, some of high gains have been shown to occur for people who don't even warm-up, and without a clear statistical analysis, it is hard to say how this group would compare to those who do use warm-ups.
The thing I would really like to address is the possible flaws with wet warm-ups.
When you sweat, the body uses that sweat to achieve homeostasis by cooling the skin at a faster rate. This is because your body heat will use the sweat as a medium to diffuse into the environment. Sweat is mostly a water. The same effect occurs when someone falls in a cold lake. Heat rushes out of them faster than in cold air; hence, why falling into ice water can lead to hypothermia so quickly. It also explains why your body cools so quickly after the shower. Your body is always attempting to achieve homeostasis, and maintain internal body temperature.
Given these facts, if you warm your genitals with a shower, hot washcloth, or cup of water, you are heating it while contact with the heat source is maintained, but when you separate from that heat source, the remaining dampness on your genitals (no matter how well you dry) will cause some level of heat loss.
Now, the theory behind a warm up is clear. By increasing the blood rushing to the region, you can support tissue repair, increase circulation, and expand the size of the region. Heat and circulation supports development of new cells, fibrous tissue repair (such as collagen), and dilates your arteries, allowing you to achieve a larger size than your usual baseline. Given this, heat clearly is important... so why not optimize your maintenance of heat?
That is why I would suggest utilizing the rice-sock method instead. On top of that, make the warm up a circuit. You are not working with skeletal muscle here. You are working with arteries, veins, venous chambers, and soft muscle. Due to this, it may be more benficial to pause your jelqing and warm up in between sets... say aproximately every 10 minutes, and re-apply the rice sock.
This is something I plan to add to my workout, and I am curious about everyone's opinions on this.
As we know, some of high gains have been shown to occur for people who don't even warm-up, and without a clear statistical analysis, it is hard to say how this group would compare to those who do use warm-ups.
The thing I would really like to address is the possible flaws with wet warm-ups.
When you sweat, the body uses that sweat to achieve homeostasis by cooling the skin at a faster rate. This is because your body heat will use the sweat as a medium to diffuse into the environment. Sweat is mostly a water. The same effect occurs when someone falls in a cold lake. Heat rushes out of them faster than in cold air; hence, why falling into ice water can lead to hypothermia so quickly. It also explains why your body cools so quickly after the shower. Your body is always attempting to achieve homeostasis, and maintain internal body temperature.
Given these facts, if you warm your genitals with a shower, hot washcloth, or cup of water, you are heating it while contact with the heat source is maintained, but when you separate from that heat source, the remaining dampness on your genitals (no matter how well you dry) will cause some level of heat loss.
Now, the theory behind a warm up is clear. By increasing the blood rushing to the region, you can support tissue repair, increase circulation, and expand the size of the region. Heat and circulation supports development of new cells, fibrous tissue repair (such as collagen), and dilates your arteries, allowing you to achieve a larger size than your usual baseline. Given this, heat clearly is important... so why not optimize your maintenance of heat?
That is why I would suggest utilizing the rice-sock method instead. On top of that, make the warm up a circuit. You are not working with skeletal muscle here. You are working with arteries, veins, venous chambers, and soft muscle. Due to this, it may be more benficial to pause your jelqing and warm up in between sets... say aproximately every 10 minutes, and re-apply the rice sock.
This is something I plan to add to my workout, and I am curious about everyone's opinions on this.
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