Every year, over 17 million American adults are plagued by sports injuries. Some are relatively minor and inconsequential, causing limited pain and healing within days. Others are particularly biting and limiting, leaving otherwise able athletes unable to train or exercise. An even smaller amount are completely debilitating, potentially ending careers and causing lifelong problems for their sufferers.

Whether annoying or debilitating, sporting injuries are never good. What’s most troubling about their frequency is that most are easily preventable through dynamic and static stretching, proper warm up exercises, and a greater approach to personal safety while exercising. We’ve seen some nasty injuries occur without real reason; the result of improper stretching and a lack of sports safety.

These six reasons, strategies, and preventative measures can help you significantly reduce the risk of minor injuries while exercising. Using a rowing machine itself is a natural risk preventer; rowers are less dangerous than other cardiovascular exercise machines and tend to attract only minimal injuries. Whether you row, run, swim or cycle, keep these six warm up reasons in mind and you’ll never find yourself unable to participate.

1. Warming up leaves your muscles more responsive to resistance exercise

Warming up isn’t just a buzzword for easing into exercise, it’s the literal definition. During warmup exercises and light cardiovascular exercise, your body rapidly pumps blood to muscle tissue and increases the temperature of your body’s major muscle groups. That means every second you spend lightly warming up on that rowing machine isn’t wasted time, it’s an important part of your exercise routine.

Warm muscles respond more favorably to resistance training, particularly repetitive training with a moderate load (a category which rowing very much fits into). By boosting the temperature of your body’s major muscles, you’ll see an increase in the force with which you can lift weights, a marked gain in your body’s pulling power, and a smaller amount of essential recovery time between exercises.

2. You’ll clear your mind, increase focus, and cut out distractions

Warming up is equal parts mental and physical. Sure, there are plenty of physiological benefits to an extensive warmup; increased body hormones, minimized risk of injury, and greater respiratory response just a few of them, but there are significantly more reasons to warm up than just the purely physical.

Take focus, for instance. A ten-minute warmup is considered wasted time by some gym gurus and exercise nuts, but it’s really the exact opposite. By isolating your focus for ten minutes before hitting the weights, you’ll gain a level of intense, specific focus that few others in the weights room could have. Channel that focus and ambition into energy and you’ll see some immediate fitness gains.

3. Dynamic stretching minimizes the risk of pulling muscles and damaging body tissue

Dynamic stretching is one of the greatest skills in any athletes arsenal. It eliminates the risk of serious injury, dramatically increases the usable range of motion, and makes you a more finely tuned piece of athletic equipment. It’s the fitness world’s equivalent to premium fuel; working out with your flexibility at its peak makes you a more efficient and powerful machine.

So spend ten-to-fifteen minutes on dynamic stretching before any serious physical activity. Gym workouts and rowing machine races definitely do qualify; they’re both as strenuous and potentially dangerous as any other sport. A quick dynamic stretching session can help you minimize the risk of pulled muscles, cut down on potential long-term injuries, and increase your pressing and pulling strength.

4. A ten-minute warmup can boost your usable range of motion

Range of motion may seem like a silly concept for rowers – something reserved for gymnasts and track athletes – but it’s actually one of the most important fitness metrics out there. Flexibility can have major effects on your body’s alignment while exercising, even leading to undeveloped muscle groups and potentially painful joint injuries.

Thankfully, flexibility is easily developed through pre-workout stretches and static holds. The first – dynamic stretches – are focused on improving the movement-based flexibility of your body’s major muscle groups. They require a slow, controlled, and comfortable progression through simple motions, many of which simulate the movements used in rowing.

The second – static holds – increase static passive flexibility. Shift your body into positions you find yourself in while rowing, particularly those which cause minor pain or discomfort. By holding these positions before your workout, you can eliminate the risk of pulled muscles and flexibility related injuries.

5. A full warmup will leave you burning weight more efficiently

There’s more to warming up than preventing injuries and increasing flexibility. Physiologists have found a clear link between slowly warmed muscles and the body’s hormonal system, suggesting that the hormones involved in burning fat, creating muscle, and increasing respiratory power are present in greater levels after an extensive pre-workout warmup.

This makes your body a significantly more powerful muscle-building, fat-burning, and exercising machine after you’ve performed some basic physical tasks. A brief rowing machine session or stationary bike effort appears to be enough to increase hormone levels, though most physicians recommend slowly easing into exercise to preserve hormone levels and keep your body efficient.

6. The warmer you are, the more effective your respiratory system becomes

Take a seat at any track and field event and you’ll witness something interesting. Not only do runners engage in a lengthy stretching session before each race, they spend almost as much time warming up as they do during their competitive events. It’s a result of the human respiratory system’s unique increase of blood temperatures, and it’s one that’s particularly useful to endurance athletes.

As blood warms, the body’s ability to supply fresh blood to muscle groups and major organs increases. Blood flow resistance begins to decrease, muscular stress slows and eventually fades entirely, and the body’s cooling systems paradoxically become more effective. This leaves you able to row faster, with greater intensity, and for significantly longer periods of time.