We have all seen the person come into the gym, maybe they jump on the treadmill and touch their toes a couple of times to stretch their hamstrings and sometimes if they want to go crazy they will stretch their quad also – and then begin running at 7.0 mph. One of the most overlooked aspects of training is a proper warm up and cool down. Part of your warm up is General Physical Preparedness (“GPP”), it can also be used to improve your work capacity. If you can do more work – you can get stronger and in better shape.
There are distinct phases of the warm up (none involve stretching your hamstrings on an idle treadmill!!). The following are the key steps of a warm up:
1. General Warm Up
The purpose of this is to raise your core temperature. An easy way to accomplish this is to jump rope from 200-400 times.
2. Soft Tissue Release
Once your body temperature has been raised, your body is primed for foam rolling and/or using a lacrosse ball for soft tissue release. Over time as your workout and breakdown muscles, scar tissue is created and it constricts your movement. Using a foam roller and/or lacrosse ball (great for hips, upper back, hamstrings and quads), you breakdown the scar tissue and increase your range of movement.
3. Taking care of your joints
There are various movements you can do but your next phase should be warming up your shoulders, spine and hips. For spine and shoulders doing cat camels and various over movements can prime your back and shoulders for your workout. For your hips doing forward, reverse and lateral hurdles coupled with walking lateral squats and forward and backwards lunges will prime your hips for the workload to follow. I typically do 10-20 reps of each movement.
4. Workout Specific Warm
It is also a good idea to some core work, it also warms up the body and the stabilizing muscles in the core is used in every barbell and dumbbell exercise. A couple of sets of 20 crunches or sprint sit ups will do the trick.
Now is the time to get your body for the specific workout you are doing, whether its upper body or lower body. For lower body doing various squats, lunges, hip thrusts, leg swings, etc. will prime your legs for the workout to follow.
For upper body, this can be accomplished using a light band to warm up your rotator cuffs, doing band resisted shrugs and rows. A medicine ball can also be used for various movements to prime your upper body. Typically I finish the upper body warm up with scapula push-ups and regular push ups.
5. Central Nervous System
Another overlooked aspect of working out is waking up your CNS, as it plays a vital role in your workout. It is also why we sometimes see smaller people handling more weight than larger people. The ability of the body’s nervous system to rapidly fire is a huge factor in strength. Some movements for this is squat jumps, bounding, broad jumps, dynamic push ups (where your hands come off the ground) and various medicine ball throws.
This whole process should take 15-20 minutes.
Now what do post-workout? Get back on the foam roller!!! This is a great way to reduce soreness the next day. This is also a great time to perform various stretching. Once you get home you should ice also if you have time (hips, hamstrings, shoulders, etc.). All of this gets out the lactic acid in the muscles.
SNEAKY IDEA - on your off weeks and/or de-load weeks doing this warm up followed by walking on the treadmill (on an incline) is a great idea to burn some body fat.
- Eugene Rogliano
There are distinct phases of the warm up (none involve stretching your hamstrings on an idle treadmill!!). The following are the key steps of a warm up:
1. General Warm Up
The purpose of this is to raise your core temperature. An easy way to accomplish this is to jump rope from 200-400 times.
2. Soft Tissue Release
Once your body temperature has been raised, your body is primed for foam rolling and/or using a lacrosse ball for soft tissue release. Over time as your workout and breakdown muscles, scar tissue is created and it constricts your movement. Using a foam roller and/or lacrosse ball (great for hips, upper back, hamstrings and quads), you breakdown the scar tissue and increase your range of movement.
3. Taking care of your joints
There are various movements you can do but your next phase should be warming up your shoulders, spine and hips. For spine and shoulders doing cat camels and various over movements can prime your back and shoulders for your workout. For your hips doing forward, reverse and lateral hurdles coupled with walking lateral squats and forward and backwards lunges will prime your hips for the workload to follow. I typically do 10-20 reps of each movement.
4. Workout Specific Warm
It is also a good idea to some core work, it also warms up the body and the stabilizing muscles in the core is used in every barbell and dumbbell exercise. A couple of sets of 20 crunches or sprint sit ups will do the trick.
Now is the time to get your body for the specific workout you are doing, whether its upper body or lower body. For lower body doing various squats, lunges, hip thrusts, leg swings, etc. will prime your legs for the workout to follow.
For upper body, this can be accomplished using a light band to warm up your rotator cuffs, doing band resisted shrugs and rows. A medicine ball can also be used for various movements to prime your upper body. Typically I finish the upper body warm up with scapula push-ups and regular push ups.
5. Central Nervous System
Another overlooked aspect of working out is waking up your CNS, as it plays a vital role in your workout. It is also why we sometimes see smaller people handling more weight than larger people. The ability of the body’s nervous system to rapidly fire is a huge factor in strength. Some movements for this is squat jumps, bounding, broad jumps, dynamic push ups (where your hands come off the ground) and various medicine ball throws.
This whole process should take 15-20 minutes.
Now what do post-workout? Get back on the foam roller!!! This is a great way to reduce soreness the next day. This is also a great time to perform various stretching. Once you get home you should ice also if you have time (hips, hamstrings, shoulders, etc.). All of this gets out the lactic acid in the muscles.
SNEAKY IDEA - on your off weeks and/or de-load weeks doing this warm up followed by walking on the treadmill (on an incline) is a great idea to burn some body fat.
- Eugene Rogliano