Warming Up

If you are having injury issues, or excessive soreness as a result of training, how you warm-up or don’t warm-up could be a large factor.

The term ‘warm-up’ is similar to saying broccoli to kids; it doesn’t exactly make gym-goers excited. A proper warm-up is just as important, if not more important, than the workout. A well-designed training program will emphasize a ‘warm-up’ and a ‘cool-down’ as equal parts of each session, with the warm-up being much more than stretching the quads for 5 seconds apiece and reaching for your toes a few times.

I want to walk you through a training session that my athletes go through every time they come to work with me. Here is the warm-up they go through:

1- Pre-stretching and foam rolling as needed
2- Static Hip Flexor stretch and Glute stretch (The hip flexors are often shortened and the Glutes become weak from large amounts of sitting)
3- YTWLI shoulder complex (This serves two functions: To lubricate the shoulder joints/increase blood-flow, and to train the Scapula to remain in a retracted state while the arms move in different directions, which increases joint stability and range-of-motion)
4- Body-weight Squats (This is to teach/correct squat form and prepare the leg muscles for training)
5- Inchworms (These place emphasis on the hamstrings and lumbar region)
6- Glute Bridges (These get the Glutes to fire, or show their inability to fire)
7- Shoulder Rolls (These increase range-of-motion in the shoulders)
8- Cossack Squats (Side-to-Side squats that increase mobility in the hips and stretch the ‘groin’)
9- TKEs (Terminal Knee Extensions get the Quads firing, the patellar tendon tracking properly, and increase ankle mobility)
*10- External Shoulder Rotations (Rotator Cuff exercise to improve shoulder posture and strength for throwing and Volleyball athletes)

This warm-up takes around 10-15 minutes. We follow it up with a 40-50 minute workout, then about 5 minutes of foam rolling post-workout. I also encourage the athletes to stretch out for at least 10 minutes later that night when their system is more relaxed than post-training.

If you combine a solid warm-up routine with a properly designed training program and meal plan, your injury rate will decrease and your overall mobility will increase.

-Bryan-