Just as with lifting, you want to run through a warm-up before cardio that prepares you for what you're about to do. And that's exactly what I did yesterday before my cardio work. (My cardio involved running an arrow drill -- sprint five yards to the top of the arrow, shuffle about five steps to the left side of the arrow, back to the point, then shuffle to the right, back to the point, and then backpeddle to the start -- three times in a row with a minute rest between each set of three. There were seven sets of it, followed by three of a bodyweight circuit, both from the latest Men's Health. Then I was done, all in less than 30 minutes with the warm-up included.)
So I do things like jumping jacks, skipping, lunges and high-knee running in place. A warm-up like this also stretches the muscles, but does so in a dynamic manner instead of static manner, something Bill Hartman explained not too long ago. Experts believe that static stretching, the kind where you stretch and hold a muscle, can actually weaken the muscle, something you obviously don't want before a workout (it's fine afterwards).
Here's a great video from the James Madison University Strength and Conditioning Program showing a dynamic warm-up. It's fairly easy to do modify many of these so that they work standing in place, which makes them easier to do in a gym.
As we get older, injury prevention begins to become even more important. And dynamic warm-ups can play a big role in helping you stay injury free.
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