The warm up is something highly overlooked in the fitness and athletic community. People often go right into their workouts or competition with out taking their body through a proper warm up.This can lead to under performance, and even worse injury.
I get it, the warm up has a monotonous and boring connotation around it. Maybe you are pressed for time and you just want to get the work out going so you can go on with the rest of your day. Or, maybe you aren’t sure what to do. It is very easy to become overwhelmed with exercises on instagram and seeing all types of different exercises and movements in the gym.
Let’s first get into, “why do a warm up”? First off a warm up prepares your muscles and joints to move and handle the load you are going to be carrying during your workout.It also helps lubricate joints and get your body into the right positions. A well rounded warm up is focused on resetting your body to its natural posture by “turning off” overactive muscles, getting your core engaged and “activating” or turning on the prime muscles you are going to be using in your lifts. Something a few Jumping Jacks or Burpees won’t cover.
Basically, you want to get everything working together while getting your joints to an optimized Range of Motion.
So here are my top 4 things you should be doing before your workout.
Self-Myofascial Release.
- Using a foam roller or lacrosse ball to do some type of roll or push on the muscles, this will help release tight spots as well as get blood flowing and heat up the tissue. Main spots to focus on are the quads, hamstrings, glutes, lats, and mid upper back.
2. Reset the Body.
-This is where you want to get your core activated and reset your spine, hips, and shoulders in the correct position. EX. Dead Bug with Breathing, Bird Dogs, Cat/Cow
3. Core/Full Body Activation
-Now that we have our hips and spine in place we want to start focusing on getting everything working together. Here we will get our prime movers fired up. We are also going to start moving around a little bit and get the blood flowing more with these exercises. Favorites here are: Glute Hip Bridges, Runners Stretch with T- Spine Twists, and Blackburns
4. Nervous System/ Heart Rate
-Here we are trying to prime our nervous system and get all of our muscle fibers working together. Doing explosive all out movements without loading the body and pre fatiguing is a great way to get your nervous system going and raise your body temperature even more. This helps us lift heavier and recruit more muscle fibers and gets our body ready to move the most efficient way possible. EX. Broad Jumps, Med Ball Slams, Sprints.
