From the time we were in middle school PE class, we have been hearing about the importance of warming up before physical activity. Back in the day that probably meant a couple of slow laps around the gym or soccer field, maybe a couple of arm swings, and toe touches then hopping into PE class. Luckily, we’ve grown out of our awkward phase with short shorts and tube socks. But now our warmups are more important than ever. A quick 10-15 minute warm-up before training will take your adaptation to the next level.
Before we get into the way to structure a warmup, the real question is if a warmup is even worth it.
Do You Need to Warmup Before Workouts?
I’m not in a place to tell you that you NEED to do something. We are all (mostly?) adults here and can make our own decisions. However, I will strongly suggest that you perform a workout before you exercise. It doesn’t matter if you are going to weight train, golf, play pickleball or go for a run. Straight up, a warmup will help you feel better, perform better, and decrease your risk of injury.
Components of a Good Warmup
As I mentioned in my article on if you should stretch before or after working out, there are 5 key components to a warmup.
The specifics of your warmup will be dependent on the activity you are doing, how much time you have and your own movement problem areas.
I would suggest taking a good look at the movement abilities that you need for your activity and honestly assess where you are at. If there are areas where you are tight (i.e. upper back rotation in golf), spend a few extra minutes per day working on those areas.
If you aren’t sure where you are tight or how to address those areas, maybe check in with a well-respected physiotherapist in your area.
The following framework seems like a lot – but after a week or so you can fly through this in 15 minutes and be prepped to crush your workout, competition or game.
Without further ado, here are the 5 components of a good warmup:
#1 Increasing Core Temperature
This might be the biggest no-brainer on the list. Everyone (almost everyone?) knows that you should do a general aerobic warmup before you exercise. Heck, that is probably the whole warmup for a lot of people. And even our middle school PE teachers knew to do this. (Though that might have been just to waste 10-15 minutes of our 60-minute PE class).
Unfortunately, I believe that increasing core temperature is one of most overlooked components of a warmup. It’s just something people do… usually half-heartedly.
However, increasing your core temperature sets the stage for your whole training or exercising experience. This is a time for you to figure out how your body is feeling for the day. What is aching, what is tight and what feels great? The time spent increasing your body temp is a great time to check in on yourself.
Additionally, getting your limbs moving will increase blood flow to your muscles. This allows your body’s physiology to gradually increase its processes. Along with your core temperature increasing, your heart rate and breathing rate will increase. All of this will increase the diameter of your blood vessels which allows for more blood to get to your working muscles.
You want to perform this activity in zone 2 or 3 of the heart rate training zones. You should be working hard enough to get a sweat going but not so hard that you can’t carry on a conversation.
I like to keep this part of the warmup at a consistent pace for about 7-10 minutes with the athletes I coach. They prefer doing it on a stationary spin bike or indoor trainer but it doesn’t matter if you run or row instead.
It’s also an opportunity for some undercover aerobic work for you too. If you do 10 minutes per workout and workout 5 or 6 times a week, you can accumulate an extra hour of low-intensity aerobic work. Although it doesn’t sound like much, this will help you build your aerobic energy.
You can check out great heart rate monitors from Wahoo Fitness, Polar or Garmin.
#2 Mobility Drills
Once you have increased the blood flow to your muscles and gotten an idea of what is tight/sore it is time to do some stationary mobility.
I want to clarify that this does not mean static stretching. Scientific research says you should not static stretch before working out.
Instead, stationary mobility drills should be used to target range of motion at specific areas of the body. For instance, you would want to increase mobility at the ankles, knees and hips prior to a lower body work out.
The range of motion at a joint can be affected by a number of components like muscle tightness, or bony blocks. Therefore, ideally, you will include mobility drills that can target these potential issues via movement or banded distraction work (see below video for an example).
Personally, I pick 4-5 mobility drills that target the muscles around the specific joints that I will be working in my training. I perform anywhere from 6-10 repetitions of each drill and repeat each drill twice.
This gives me a 3-5-minute window to address specific problems in my mobility.
Usually, this involves 2-3 hip/knee exercises and 1-2 shoulder focused exercises.
Mobility Drill Examples:
Thoracic Spine:
Hips:
Lower Back:
#3 Activation Exercises
Now that we have addressed some tight points on the body, it is time to start really prepping for exercise. That brings up to activation exercises.
As an aside:
I often cringe when I hear the words “activation exercise” in the strength and conditioning and rehabilitation worlds. I think a lot of people have the belief that muscles like the glutes aren’t “active” when doing exercises. But if you you’re standing up your glutes are definitely active.
In this case though, I consider activation exercises as an opportunity to “prime” some of the key muscle groups that will be relied upon in our exercise.
For instance, on a squat focused day, I would perform some priming/activation exercises for the glutes and hamstrings. This would include some double and single leg glute bridges, side lying leg raises (Jane Fonda’s) and hamstring curls.
This is an opportunity for you to create a mind-muscle connection. You should be deliberate in your movements and feel the target muscles working. There should be a gradual increase in muscle tension as you move through range of motion.
In addition, I always ensure that I include a couple of trunk exercises in this part of the warmup. This goes whether I am lifting weights or cycling – I always touch the core in my warmup. Usually, I try to do one exercise for the front of the trunk (e.g. a deadbug variation) and one for the backside of the trunk (e.g. bird-dog).
#4 Dynamic Mobility Drills
This is where we move into some movement drills to prep the body. If you’ve ever watched an NBA pre-game warmup or track athletes warmup, you have definitely seen some dynamic mobility drills.
Dynamic mobility drills include lunge variations, the world’s greatest (in the video below), knee hugs and marches.
Basically, the idea is to use movements that mimic patterns and positions that you will be getting into during your exercise. Through repetition you will be “greasing” your joints so that they are accustomed to moving through increasing ranges of motion before placed under load.
Repeating a group of dynamic mobility drills for weeks on end will improve your range of motion and mobility. Also, as you become more aware of how your body feels as you do the drills you can understand what your “normal” is.
Then on any given day you have the knowledge to understand if you are feeling outside of your normal. This might lead to you going back and doing some extra static mobility drills or choosing to alter your workout in response.
#5 Nervous System Prep
We’ve got the body warmed up, muscles activated and range of motion primed. Now, we have to get our nervous system ready to go!
Your nervous system is what determines your efficiency of movement and force production. Having the nervous system firing on all cylinders is a key component to making sure your muscles are working correctly. This is equally important for weightlifting or aerobic exercise. Muscles that are producing force properly and at the right time are more likely to be stronger and be at lower risk of injury.
Nervous system prep should be the last thing you do before you start your exercise. It is an opportunity to move fast and be explosive so that you are fully ready to start your training.
This usually involves some skips, like shown below, jumps or sprints (or all of the above).
The Warmup Plan Cheat Sheet
Increasing Core Temperature Plan
- 7-10 minutes of biking, running or rowing at a heart rate between 60-80% of HRmax
Mobility Drill Plan
- 4-5 mobility drills done for 6-10 repetitions and repeated twice
- Focus on drills that target areas that will be worked in your training or exercise
Activation Exercise Plan
- 3-4 bodyweight or low resistance exercises targeting key muscles groups
- 1 set of 5-10 reps should be plenty
- Consider always including trunk work
Dynamic Mobility Plan
- 6-8 drills that target the whole body and take joints through a full range of motion
- 1-2 sets for 8 reps or about 10m of movement
- Should be multi-directional and done under control
Nervous System Prep Plan
- 1-2 skipping exercises (A’s or B’s) for 10m each
- 2 sets and 5 reps of 2 jumping variations
- 2 sets of 15-20 meter running accelerations