Creating an Optimal Warm-up

I work with a lot of recreational and high school athletes, and the number one hole I always see in training programs is the lack of an effective warm-up. Here’s the kicker, nobody thinks his or her warm-up is lacking. Nobody comes to me and says, “I think I need a better warm-up”. The vast majority of clients don’t even consider their warm-up as something that could be contributing to injury.

The reality is your warm-up is the KEY to getting the most out of your workout, and also preventing injury. Walking or jogging on a treadmill for 5-10 minutes is not a warm-up. In fact, I think you should be doing a warm-up FOR the treadmill.

Here are the three components of an optimal warm-up:

  1. blood flow

  2. mobility

  3. activation

Now let’s break this down…

BLOOD FLOW

Here is where you could potentially hop on a piece of cardio equipment at low intensity for 5-10 minutes, but I prefer doing some form of soft tissue work. Personally I like to foam roll, but a massage gun would also be appropriate here, making sure to hit all of the muscle groups you plan to work. Below is an example of a foam rolling routine I would do before a full-body workout.

ACTIVATION

This is most important for injury prevention for those of you with known motor control dysfunction. Not sure what I mean by that? If you have pain with almost any exercise, it’s likely you have a motor control issue. See a PT to figure out what is going on, and ask them what you can incorporate into your warm-up to bulletproof your routine. In general, you want to hit breathing for core activation, gluts for almost everything but especially leg days, and scapular stabilizers for upper body days. Check out an example of a lower body activation routine below:

So there you have it, a complete routine to warm-up effectively. Do you do anything like this? Let me know your questions in the comment section!

Jillian Cunningham