How to Warm Up

When I ran cross-country in high school, our typical warm up was a 2-mile jog followed by about 10 minutes of static sretches. I won't get into the details of why I disagree with that warm up routine, but I will talk about how to properly warm up to get the most out of your workout with the least possibility of injury.

Why warm up in the first place? Several reasons: to raise your heart rate so that blood pumps more quickly throughout your whole body, bringing oxygen and nutrients with it; to increase your ability to move you joints through a full range of motion; to lubricate said joints; and to activate muscles so that they fire optimally. With all that good stuff being said, can you really justify not warming up before each training session? Nah, not really.

So, to achieve all of the outcomes just listed, a warm up must be thorough. However, many people don't have enough time in their day to spend upwards of 10 minutes warming up and then going through a 45-60 minute training session. For this reason, I am a big proponent of the standard warm up that we use at the Underground Strength Gym for our athletes:

BW Squat x 10
Reverse Lunge x 5/side
Push Up x 10
Band Pull Apart x 15-50 (the stronger you get, the more you can crank out)
Abs x 10-15 (any ab exercise will do, but stay away from crunches on the floor)
Jump Rope x 3-5 minutes



This warm up is simple, quick, and thorough. More importantly, it helps athletes and anyone else perfect technique on all of these movements. It's much easier for an athlete to squat correctly with a bar on his back when he's been practicing the technique before every session. To this warm up I personally add a static hip flexor stretch holding for 10 seconds each side. More times than not, an athlete will come in with very tight hip flexors, which will negatively impact his performance. With today's sedentary lifestyle in which most people are sitting down all day, tight hip flexors are becoming an epidemic. From personal experience, just a week's worth of stretching my hip flexors once or twice a day has mad a huge impact on my ability to squat without hip pain. Make sure that when performing a warm up, you concentrate on perfect technique and a full range of motion. You don't have to speed through it, but a good pace will ensure that your blood gets flowing and your joints are well-lubricated.

Warming up doesn't have to take a half hour, but it must be done. The warm up I've outlined is great for groups of lifters, and is a valuable aid in helping athletes learn and practice the skills that getting stronger requires, i.e. perfecting technique. Dan John once said, "If it's good, do it everyday." By squatting, lunging, pushing, and pulling everyday, you can really build up these skills. Jumping rope is not only great for raising your heart rate before training, it's also a great conditioning tool. Think of it this way: if you jump rope for 5 minutes everyday, that's 35 minutes per week, almost 2.5 hours per month. Think about how much better conditioned you'd be simply from jumping rope 2.5 hours more per month. Little steps add up. A proper warm up is one easy step to ensuring that you stay injury free and get the most out of your training.

Stay healthy, stay STRONG!

P.S. - Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints on becoming SuperBowl champions. Hard work and dedication pays off.