Hopefully it goes without saying that you should always warm up before beginning a work out. Many people believe this has something to do with preventing injury, it doesn't. Instead, it's important to warm up before any activity for the simple fact that it prepares you for that activity, whether mentally or physically. Furthermore, I will discuss some of the basic ideas involved with the "cool down" as well, which is often neglected by those who exercise.

Let's get to it!

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How do I "warm up"?

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First, let's talk more about why you should be doing it in the first place. The right warm-up should increase muscle, as well as core, temperatures, while facilitating greater blood flow. It also gets you "lose", so-to-speak. These effects can translate into the following workout performance factors:

a. Faster muscle contraction and relaxation of both agonist and antagonist muscles.
b. Improvements in the rate of force development and reaction time.
c. Improvements in muscle strength and power.
d. Decreased viscous resistance in muscles.
e. Improved oxygen delivery.
f. Increased blood flow to active muscles.
g. Enhanced metabolic reactions.

As far as what you should be doing in your warm up, that depends on the individual and what activity they are preparing to perform. When considering these things, many people will immediately land on the option of statically stretching, don't do this...However, dynamic stretching is often times an appropriate warm up. Regardless of what you decide to do, it's easiest to break your warm up down into two components:

1. The general warm up.
2. The specific warm up.

There very well may be an "optimal warm up", depending on the individual and the designated performance, but either way, the warm up should only last long enough to increase core temperature and blood flow, without feeling any real fatigue.

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What about flexibility?

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I know what you're thinking, "flexibility is essential to performance, you should always stretch before working out!" Well, yes and no. Obviously, there are optimal ranges of motion involved in every type of movement, but you are more likely to injure yourself by going outside of these ranges, rather than coming up short. If you add in the potential for injury associated with asymmetrical flexibility, it's reasonable to think you should stretch during your warm up. However, the main thing to remember is that traditional static stretching will primarily increase ROM during a passive movement, which does you absolutely no good with respect to active movements. To increase ROM in that regard, you need to focus on dynamic stretching.

Also, there are many factors that affect ROM in both passive and active moments, some of which are under our control, while others are not. Factors that you can control should be addressed during or after training, though, so there is no reason to address them in your warm up.

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More about stretching...

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Although stretching should not be of great concern during the warm up, it definitely has it's place in the cool down portion of your workout. At this time, it's perfectly reasonable to perform a short static stretch routine, or PNF. There is also another mode called ballistic stretching, but it is questionable whether that should be performed at all.

Whenever or wherever you decide to stretch, it's crucial to also keep in mind the basic variables:

a. Frequency
b. Intensity
c. Duration

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Final Notes

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In conclusion:

1. Warming up should be geared toward the specific requirements of the movement for which the individual is preparing.

2. A warm up should last as long as it takes to...well...warm up.

3. Do not include any type of ballistic or static stretches in your warm up.

4. If you are concerned about your flexibility, make use of static and PNF stretching during your cool down, or else set aside 15-20 every other day to stretch effectively.