Proper Warm-ups
Warming up is important before exercise.
We’re not just talking about doing a few stretches.
Come learn how to prepare effectively for your workouts!
There are many differing ideas on how to properly warm up before different types of workouts. In general, it is extremely important to warm your muscles up before exercising to avoid over-exerting and potentially straining a muscle or tendon.
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Many people tend to do the same old thing every time, like jumping up and down, shaking out their muscles, twisting or bending over a couple times - boring!! Not only does that lack direction, but more importantly it is not an efficient or effective way to prepare you for the workout ahead. What will work better? Performing exercises that activate the muscles you are focusing on that day.
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What does this look like? Well if you’re doing a lower body day, we know that a lot of people are quad dominant (meaning they use their legs way more than their glutes; the glutes should be the primary movers of weight). Therefore, we want to focus on a few specific exercises that will activate the glutes so that they are more likely to turn on when they’re supposed to while performing different lower body exercises.
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A great glute-activating warm up includes glute bridges and then progressing to single leg glute bridges. To perform these, you should lay on your back with you feet shoulder width apart. Then lift the pelvis into the air, squeezing the butt. Repeat this for 10-15 reps. Using a slower tempo will also give you longer time under tension, increasing activation of the muscles. You can then do the same thing with one leg, focusing on not twisting or shifting the pelvis. Don’t forget to switch legs!
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If you’re doing some walking or running, consider adding in some single-leg balance work. A single-leg dead lift activates the deep foot stabilizers. Starting with your left leg down, pickup a dumbbell or kettlebell in your right hand and hinge at the hips so the right leg is almost parallel with the ground. Keep the shoulders back throughout this entire exercise with the dumbbell hanging down towards the ground with a straight arm. As shown in the video, slowly hinge back and forth keeping the back and neck neutral the entire time. Perform for 5-10 slow reps, then switch legs. You should really feel the down side leg’s glute burning and the foot nice and active! Doing it barefoot is also the most effective so you let the feet properly spread out. Shoes can often hinder our ability to let the foot do this.
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For runners and walkers, an additional way to prepare is to do some ankle dorsiflexion presses to activate the tibialis anterior. This muscle on the front of the leg lifts your foot up for the heel strike part of the stride. In the video we show Dr. Sara performing the exercise with a band for resistance. You can also do the same movement with a kettlebell hanging over the toes.
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Now, if you’re doing upper body work with anything overhead, we must properly active the scapular stabilizers, aka the muscles controlling your shoulder blade. A great warm up to do this is called a wall angel. First, find a wall. Step your feet out a foot or so away from the wall and have the upper back flat on the wall. Next place your arms against the wall in a touchdown stance. Slowly bring your arms up as high as you can without arching the low back or the upper back coming off the wall, then slowly bring them down as far as possible, almost trying to touch your elbows together. You should really feel the muscles between the shoulder blades kick on. Don’t force your arms all the way up or down - going to our own mobility limits will still get those muscles active.
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Another one to add in would be single-arm overhead carries. Hold a weight in one hand overhead with a straight arm. This can be a kettlebell, dumbbell, or even a jug of laundry detergent or a gallon of milk. For this exercise, really focus on keeping the shoulder blade down rather than shrugging the traps upwards. Walk in a very controlled manner and feel the muscles around that shoulder blade kick on.
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Now as you can see, all of these movements are not stretches. Rather, they are exercises that really focus on the muscles that should be turning on during upper and lower body days. Many people tend to overuse the big muscles like the traps, lats, and quads. If we warm up like this, it gives us a better fighting chance of activating the correct muscles when they’re supposed to be working throughout each exercise!
