Questions to ask yourself before workouts are 1) how long is it going to be (duration/rep scheme) 2) what specific movements does it entail 3) intensity. Answering these can help determine how long, how intense and what movements you should include in your warmup. I often see people walk into a gym and get right to it. It somewhat stresses me out, depending on what they start with. When they go to barbell work (like squats, bench, deadlift) I get nervous. Warm-up/movement prep is a must!
Warm-up is a tough one – just like workouts should be individualized – so should warmups. Why you ask? Because everyone needs something different! Depending on if you sat all day (highly likely but not always) what position you sat in (cross legged, sitting on a leg, hunched over or all of the above). Sleep position plays a factor of where you may be tight or need help as well. Lastly, any previous repetitive sports expressing excessive motion or lack there of will need extra movement prep attention. I know runners loveee to get straight to it! Shoes, on, watch on, HR monitor on – out the door running. I’ve been there, sometimes I still do that and I always regret it! In my personal and professional opinion I think everyone needs a warm-up/movement prep to a certain extent – 90/90, Hip CARs, t-spine CARs, Scapular CARs and Shoulder CARs for sure before every workout.
Why?
Because there is a high chance your body was just asleep all day being still at work (or literally if your an AM workout person). You need to get things moving! Even if you’re only doing legs, your upper body is going to assist you. How? You should actively stabilize/create tension throughout your body because you will hold weights on your shoulders (barbell) or next to it (Kettlebells/dumbbells)!! This means your upper body needs to be ready to move with you as well – the more in-tune your body is the better and more weight you will move. Same goes with if you’re only lifting upper body – you will likely be standing, sitting or lying for some movements. This means your feet/legs will likely be needed to help create total body tension (push into the floor, to fire your glutes, to help get the barbell up to help those pecs grow eh? Yes). What does this all mean? You should do your best to warmup your whole body at least a little.
The longer the workout – shorter/less intense the warmup and the shorter the workout – longer/more intense the warmup. Why? if your workout, in and of itself, is about to be an hour or longer the last thing you want to do is warmup for 30-45 minutes and take forever. More importantly you don’t want to totally exhaust yourself before you even start your work! The shorter the workout – think some heavy deadlifts, squats, olympic lifts or treadmill sprints – you REALLY need to have your whole body prepped and ready to be on for these high efforts.
Regardless, you want to get the blood flowing and your joints moving through their full active range of motion. Easy ways to get the blood flowing is hoping on the bike, rower, treadmill, etc though I wouldn’t recommend solely doing that. I suggest getting some movement into those joints before a cardio warmup (CARs mentioned earlier). All day you have been stuck in a neck flexed, spine flexed, hip flexed and knee flexed position, try and get them open and rotating when you’re able to!
Peace, Love, Lift
Yep! Wake yourself up- workouts are so much better when you do.
Yes they are!!