Warm ups- something seen as an important part of a session yet so often skipped. How important are they really? Why do we skip them so often? and what can we do to make sure we get enough warm up in?
A great warm up can lead to:
- Heavier working sets
- A greater adaptation(when your jumping or working out cold you won’t be able to produce the same stimulus)
- Smoother reps
Signs that you aren’t sufficiently warmed up:
- You feel sluggish
- Your second working set is better than your first
- Your joints feel cold, stiff and/or sore
If warming up leads to better performance why is it so easy to not do them? Maybe they are taking too long? maybe what you are doing doesn’t feel effective.
In order to make our warm ups easy to integrate as possible lets look at what we can do to make them efficient in under 10 minutes.
When it comes to picking what is the most effective modality we first need to look at what we want to achieve.
An effective warm up should lead to:
- Elevated Heart Rate
- Increased joint freedom
- Readiness to produce large forces quickly
Lets look at our warm up options and the effect we can get from each:
Warm Up Modalities
Isometrics
Benefits:
-
- Pain relief
- Reduced joint stiffness
- increase muscle temperature
- Easy way to produce large amounts of force
Example Exercises: Wall Sits, Hip Hikes, Calf Raise Holds
Warm Up sets
Benefits:
-
- Movement Repetition
- Reduce joint stiffness
- great way to warm up for specific movements
Example Exercises: Same exercise as what you are going to do in the session at a lighter intensity.
Cardio
Benefits:
-
- Increased heart rate
- Increased muscle temperature
Example Exercises: Walking, jogging, rowing etc
Mobility Drills
Benefits:
-
- Reduced joint stiffness
- Nice way to ease yourself into a session
Example Exercises: Active mobility, Spiderman Stretch, Bow and Arrows
Changes to Program order
Benefit:
-
- No addition to time taken to complete a session
- increase muscle temperature and heart rateExample: Lunging prior to squats, Some accessory work prior to main lifts
Overview
When it comes to warming up you don’t have to do all of it- in fact it would be more effective not to- Pick 1-2 modalities and spend up to 10 minutes warming up prior to starting. Try out a few different things and if you are not sure try this sample warm up below
Sample Warm Up
Wall Sits 3 x 30 sec
Hip Hikes 3 x 45 sec
2 x warm up sets prior to first working set