I once shadowed a coach who said he doesn’t believe in warm ups. He said “a leopard doesn’t warm up before they sprint to chase their food so we don’t need to either”. And I just never really got on board with this logic. Sure we can have adrenaline rush in flight or fight and perform magnificent physical feats, but for most day to day exercise – especially the older you get – I highly recommend a warm up. Yes it can be annoying or boring or feel like you’re expending too much energy before your actual workout. However, I hear from so many people how much better they feel during and after their workouts when they warm up. I’d say 99% of the time you’ll feel a benefit and a difference when you warm up. Let’s get into it.
Why We Warm Up
Essentially, our muscles are elastic. Think of a rubber band. When rubber bands are cold they tend to be less mobile and more prone to snapping. When a rubber band is warm it is more mobile and able to be stretched forward. For your muscles this translates to better range of motion, which we know that better range of motion typically means more efficacy to your movement patterns and benefits of your exercises.
So, the point of warming up is to elevate your core body temperature and literally warm up your cold muscles so you are more mobile and have better movement patterns and range of motion. Warming up also primes and preps your nervous system and signals to your body you’re about to exercise which allows your body to become more optimal for exercise.
4 Main Elements of A Warm Up
There’s various research about warm ups, but the following 4 components are pretty standard recommendations when it comes to warming up. This order would be the ideal sequence to warm up in.
*Light* Cardio
You only need 5-10 minutes of light low intensity cardio. The point of this is literally to warm up your core body temperature. A walk on a treadmill or walk to the gym would do the trick, bike, elliptical, rowing machine, etc. are good ideas. Stairmaster might be a little to taxing for the purposes of this warm up as a gauge of what might be considered too much cardio.
Myofascial Release
This could also be considered self manual therapy and would include procedures like foam rolling, percussion guns, rolling out on a lacrosse ball, etc. The purpose of this is to have blood be directed and flow to your muscles to prime and prep the muscles.
Dynamic Stretching
There’s been a lot of research coming out how static stretching like a toe touch isn’t the best warm up. Examples of a dynamic stretch would be leg swings or arm circles. Again, the purpose of this is to get blood flowing and the body warm. Noticing a pattern, yet? One of my favorite dynamic stretches is literally called “the world’s greatest stretch” and it’s probably my most preferred pre-movement stretch because it really is the perfect stretch.
Bodyweight/Lighter Sets Working Up to Your Movement
The purpose of this is mostly to prime your nervous system and your movement patterns. In the previous articles I’ve posted I’ve noted why we typically begin with bodyweight movements before we progress to weighted movements. However, in this instance, sometimes you should be building up from body weight, a little more weight, and a little more weight until your at the amount that you’re supposed to be lifting at. Sometimes, it’s necessary to build up to a weight, but for complex, multijoint, and heavy movements I’d highly recommend it.
The Bottom Line: Please Find A Warm Up that Works for You
I personally love and try to begin any exercise session I do with some self myofascial release and then some dynamic movement. Before most of my lifts I’ll do bodyweight versions of the movement to fire up my nervous system for the movement pattern. I count my light cardio as my walk to the gym, but some people would do better to really warm up their muscles a little more before they begin the rest of the warm up.