I get it. Your time is precious.
And you don’t want to waste it doing a pointless warm-up.
Don’t worry. I’m with you on that.
So let’s cut to the chase.
The one and only body you have is precious. And admit it or not, it’s also fragile.
With an insufficient warm-up, you end up with predictably unpredictable results. Sometimes you’ll perform well, and other times you don’t.
Not having the right warm-up has been the catalyst for a season-ending injury for many athletes. Regardless if it’s due to causation or correlation.
Those inconsistent results and potential devastation are far from what you desire.
But with the right warm-up, you can ensure that you’ll make the most of your precious time and body.
To learn how to make your warm-up count, read on.
Put aside impatience
If you’re like most athletes, your eagerness to train and play can create impatience. So you may either skip steps of your warm-up, or skip it all together. Because there’s a false belief that every minute that you warm-up takes from the ‘real’ fun.
But you can guess what takes more time away from fun than a warm-up? That’s right…an injury. Try that one on for size to experience a whole new level of impatience for what you could have prevented.
So get out of your own way and check your impatience at the gym door. You must settle in to do whatever preparation work your mind and body needs to push your outer limits.
When you are patient during your warm-up, you are able to better listen to your body. And thus take better care to ensure that you can stay healthy. And perform at a high level on a consistent basis for a span of many years.
Recognize that if your impatience resurfaces, it means that you don’t trust your process. Or that your desire to be an Athlete For Life needs to be stronger. So keep that vision top of mind, always.
It’s up to you to make your warm-up feel productive towards reaching your goals. Patience is an important place to start.
What makes your warm-up worth your time
The right warm-up will help to ensure your body is in the prime state to perform when it’s ‘go’ time. It will also reduce the risk and severity of a potential injury.
Your warm-up will only be worth it to you if it improves your chance to get:
- Better results
- Faster results
- Maintain your results for as long as you want
- All the above with the least amount of cost to your body
Those four objectives are what Advanced Athletics is all about.
That’s why I make sure that my players’ warm-ups are unique to them and their needs.
Preparation breeds success
The right warm-up prepares you in mind, body, and spirit to perform your best and reduce the risk of injury during your workout.
Warm-up in Mind to:
- Improve your mental clarity and focus
- Increase your capacity to concentrate
Warm-up in Body to:
- Increase your core temperature (3-4 degrees)
- Better lubricate the joints with their own synovial fluids
- Fine-tune your nervous system readiness to match the activity
- Discover and reduce / eliminate of residual excess tension in your muscles and fascia
- Activate weak / underperforming muscles to better contribute to functional exercise movements
Warm-up in Spirit to:
- Build your confidence
- Produce the correct level of effort
- Reinforce your burning desire to win
When you reach all the above with your warm-up, then you have a recipe for consistent success.
The right warm-up recipe
There is no one size fits all warm-up. So you get to experiment with what suits you best for your situation.
Here’s a general example of what that recipe could look like:
- 5-10 minutes of low intensity continuous movement (i.e. jogging, jumping rope, stationary bike, farmers’ walks, etc.)
- 5-10 minutes of self-myofascial release rolling
- 5-10 minutes of corrective mobility stretching and stability exercises
- 5-10 minutes of priming your Central Nervous System with exercises to give you optimal readiness (i.e. bounding, Olympic movement complexes, running / agility drills, etc.)
- And while doing all the above, you should practice proper breathing mechanics and visualization to coax your best in mind, body and spirit.
When you commit to become an Athlete For Life, then you make the time to warm-up in full.
As always, I’m here to support you. That’s why I created Search and Rescue Mobility (SARM). It will give you the right daily routine to prepare you to perform your best.
Get yours here, and stay athletic.
Your coach,
Adam