The Warm Up.
It’s the least “sexy” part of training. It lacks the competition and the intensity of the rest of the workout. Because of this, it is often overlooked by coaches and or avoided by athletes. The warm up, though, is one of the most important components of any training program.
Beyond simply preparing athletes for more intense work, a proper warm up simultaneously offers us a chance to work on movement technique, prevent injury in the gym and on the field, and become a better overall athlete (mobility/ROM/proprioception/etc). (1, 2, 3)
How should you approach the warm up in order to achieve all of these significant benefits?
Let’s take a quick look at the structure of a well-executed warm up.
Important to note here, is the order in which everything is executed. Though we have laid out a specific sequence of events, a warm up does not always need to follow such to the letter. Often, these stages will overlap, and sometimes it makes more sense to perform a technique brief before mobility or perform your activation in place of dynamic movement. Bottom line: so long as you are using a structured warm up with purposeful intent, you’re doing it right!
Step 1: Get Moving! (Elevate Heart Rate)
1A: Light Cardio
Before we do anything else, we must prime the engine. To do this, we elevate the heart rate, incite blood flow to the entire body, and begin moving our muscles and joints in a low intensity environment. The goal, here, is to elevate body temperature and increase tissue elasticity. (4) The simplest way to accomplish this is to hop into some light “cardio” work. You have a whole host of different options:- Jogging
- Biking
- Rowing
- Jumping Rope
- Jumping Jacks
1B: Dynamic Movement
Once the heart rate is up and blood has begun to flow, we like to transition directly into another kind of continuous movement (you could also start the process here). Unlike our monostructural cardio, though, we are working through fuller ranges of motion about different joints. The goal is to expand our initial warm up into more athletic, movement-relevant motion. Example: The Alternating Spiderman & Reach Other possibilities:- PVC Pass throughs
- Bodyweight Good Mornings
- Inchworm to a Push Up
- Continuous Line Drills