How to Build Your Own Warm-Up

GET IN SHAPE. EAT HEALTHIER. LIVE MORE.

If you’re not including a quality warm-up in your exercise routine, you are missing out on some great benefits (as well as increasing your risk of injury). A good warm-up helps to raise our body temps and heart rate, which makes oxygen more available to our muscles. It also helps reduce our risk of injury, increases our flexibility, and allows us to be properly prepared for heavier weighted sets.

Not sure where to get started? Here’s a template to start incorporating into your routine:

1. MOVE (2-5 MINUTES)

The goal here is to simply warm up your body and get your heart rate up. This can look as simple as a 2-5 minute bike, row, or jog. You can also incorporate movements such as high knees, jumping jacks, and toe-taps.

2. mobilize (2-3 movements)

Now that we’ve gotten our heart rates up, it’s time to be intentional about our mobilization movements. Look at your workout components, and target areas that you are going to use. For example, banded good mornings or hamstring walks can help you prepare for a deadlift, and inchworm push-ups can help you get ready for some rows or plank work.

Focus on quality over quantity here. A common ‘set’ pattern would be to perform 2-3 sets of 5-8 reps for each movement.

3. load (3-4 movements)

Load helps us prepare for the heavier lifting we may be doing in our workouts. Air squats can help get us ready for goblet squats, and a light goblet squat in turn gets us ready for a heavier squat. Banded presses may help us prepare for a dumbbell press, etc. The goal here is to work through a couple sets in order to activate and warm-up the muscles we will be directly working with in the strength components of our workout.

4. prep (2-3 sets)

Prep is the final step in the warm-up process. The goal here is to work through a couple sets of our workout to get our heart rate up again, as well as make sure we have the appropriate weights and modifications. By working through a ‘prep’ set, we can assess where we are and have a plan in place before we officially start our workout.

SAMPLE upper and lower body warm-up

To help you see this template in action, check out the graphics below for an upper body and lower body workout you can use at-home.

All the video demos for the above warm-ups are available on our Youtube channel. Click the link below so you can feel confident moving through all of your movements! As always, keep moving forward.

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