by Kerry Taylor
Warming up the body and warming up leftovers is an option we have to change the way we feel and the way our food tastes. Not everyone digs leftovers or warming up, BUT the body can’t perform at its greatest potential when it’s cold. Getting in some type of proper warm up before training will ensure that the body increases its level of performance. It doesn’t have to be a long drawn out thing, like some get you to believe, to achieve great results. Banging out a good 5-10 minutes would be sufficient enough. The shorter it is, the more targeted it must be to the activity you are about to perform. If your training for that day has a heavy focus on upper body and your time is limited, your warm up shouldn’t consist of all lower body movements. That would defeat the purpose of the warm up.
There are those out there that think warming up the body for performance is useless, I beg to differ. In my history of training and sports, my performance was always greater when my body was properly prepped and ready to go.
The main idea of warming up the body is to increase blood flow, activate and wake up all the muscles, get the heart rate up, lubricate your joints, get into the proper mindset and open those lungs a bit. I liken it to taffy. Hard taffy will shatter when tapped on a table if it is cold. On the other hand, if it’s moved around a bit and warmed up, it can form into anything and is easier to eat and chew. To help with the warm up, add in some foam rolling/soft tissue work before the actual activity of the warm up. If you feel that you would like to add a warm up into your training moving forward, here are some examples of different approaches to take when warming up.
General warm up:
Jump rope, Ski Erg, Bike, Walking, Quick Jog. Spend 6 minutes of one of these to get yourself going.
Full Body warm up:
Upper body focused warm up:
Lower body focused warm up:
Neural Activation (Get the Central Nervous System fired up):
The one movement that you may find in warm ups are, push ups. I believe they can be in the warm up, depending on the level of training experience a person has. Obviously, it is a great movement for the upper body, BUT if you can’t perform push ups already, properly, why have them in the warm up? They will be more exhaustive than preparatory. Once you can perform 10 good push ups for 2 sets, I would say you are safe to add 5 reps into your warmup without over taxing yourself.
Hopefully you already have a warm up plan implemented into your training. If not, I hope I was able to give you some insight on the right way to get ready to perform at your highest level. The previous warm ups are not the only way to warm up, but a few variations out of a million different possible combinations. Find what works best for you. Remember the goal is to create better results and performance, not injuries. Warming up is step one. When you feel your body is ready, it’s time to rock and roll! Until next time, continue to live life 1 degree above the rest!