This Warmup is for EVERYTHING

This hits all the major areas

Is this your warmup?

  • Swinging your arms around
  • Doing a few stretches
  • Hitting some warmup sets
  • THEN JUST GO!

If that sounds familiar, then you are missing something crucial. Something that could improve your performance and reduce injury risk.

But does that mean we need a specific warmup for every activity? No, there are three essential components to consider for any warmup.

In this blog post, we will discuss these three components of an effective warmup. Not only that, but I’ll show you the warm-up I use for many of my clients.

Read the post, watch the video, and listen to the podcast to learn about it.

The 3 Essential Components of a Warmup

This study showed that there are 3 crucial warmup elements:

  1. Aerobic component
  2. Sport-specific stretching
  3. Sport-like movements

These elements work together to prepare you for the task you’re about to perform.

Here’s how you can program each.

Aerobic component

Start your warmup with 5-10 minutes of steady-state aerobic exercise.

The methods can be whatever you like. This can be biking, jump rope, elliptical, etc.

Some type of cyclical activity can increase body temperature and enhance learning.

Make sure that the intensity is easy (3-4/10 effort) and practice nasal breathing during.

Sports-specific stretching

Most activities involve the entire body. So too should the warm up.

This sequence covers it all. It’ll start with ground-based low intensity activities, progressing to high speed movements.

1. Sidelying same connect roll

This movement helps improve rotation and posterior expansion.

Here are the keys:

  1. Lie on your side, gripping top ribcage with the bottom arm
  2. Hold a yoga block with top arm and leg. Keeping the knee bent and pressure on the block
  3. Inhale, roll on your back, then exhale back to the start
  4. Roll with a straight line from nose to zipper
  5. 2 sets of 10 rolls per side

2. Drunken turtle

This move is great for preparing for the squat. It loons up the entire backside of the body.

  1. Grab knees towards chest, keeping chest parallel to the wall
  2. Inhale through the nose, roll on your back
  3. Exhale, come up, keeping knees close to the body
  4. 2 rounds of 10 rolls

3. Retro quadruped on elbows crawl

This move is great for loosening up the back of the hips and improving lower ribcage dynamics.

  1. Get on forearms with hands touching, look up at fingertips
  2. Inhale through the nose, exhale, push elbows into the ground
  3. Press one elbow and opposite kneecap down, slide back an inch
  4. Alternate sides, 2 sets of 5 steps per side

4. Spiderman walk

I like this move to improve hip mobility and loosen up the groin.

  1. Take a big stride with the front leg, hands down
  2. Load into the hip, then alternate sides
  3. 6 per side

4. Reaching Box Squat

This move is a great standing version to improve posterior lower hip mobility. It also ensures good lower ribcage positioning.

  1. Hold a 10-pound plate or reach arms out
  2. Soften knees, inhale, reach towards the ground, hips back
  3. Tap the box, exhale, come up
  4. 8-10 reps

5. Reverse Lunges with Cross Connect

This move improves rotation through the upper and lower body.

  1. Step back 2 feet, drop straight down, front foot flat
  2. Bring arm towards midline, in line with front knee
  3. Inhale in position, exhale, come up, alternate sides
  4. 6 rounds per side

6. Lateral squats with cross connect

This move works similarly to the reverse lunge, only a more frontal plane variation.

  1. Stand wider than hip-width apart, feet flat
  2. Push off inner heel and base of the big toe towards one leg
  3. Straight line from foot, knee, hip, chest, eye
  4. Bring elbow towards knee, inhale, switch sides

Sport-like movements

The final component of the warmup is performing the actual task you’re about to do, but at a lower intensity.

To do this, you’ll want to ramp up the intensity over several sets.

You may do a few reps, with the following intensity progression:

  1. Set 1 at 50%
  2. Set 2 at 75%
  3. Set 3 at 80%
  4. Set 4 at 90%
  5. Perform your first working set

Sum up

If you do these moves, you’ll be warmed up for pretty much every activity you want to do.

To recap:

  • A good warmup can improve performance and reduce injury risk
  • 3 keys to a warmup – aerobic component, sports-specific stretching, and sports-like movements

If you want something that’ll help you with your exercise cooldown, then I’d check out this post.