How To Warm Up Before A Workout

How To Warm Up Before A Workout

Poor preparation leads to poor performance.

Time after time, I’m continually questioned about injuries or bouts of discomfort that occur as a result of poor preparation for performance.

Does this sound like you?

We all know from our PE textbooks back in high school that warming up is good prior to exercise. However the concern a great many people have is that it has limited capacity to effect SPECIFIC movement patterns like a squat or overhead position. This is not to take away from the myriad of benefits a general warm up has to offer, but we decided to make the process more refined, easy and impactful so you can get the best from what your training has to offer that day that can be used in conjunction with an effective warm up strategy.

Mobilise Before You Stabilise

The “mobilise before you stabilise” concept aims to give the body the minimum movement requirements so it can accept the demands of whatever activity, training or sport you are engaging with. So if you know your workout will involve a lot of squating, make sure you tailor this to your hips, lower back and other problem areas as you see fit, and repeat the same process for different areas and activities – over head press, snatching, running etc.

The mobilise before you stabilise concept aims to eradicate the negative effects from dysfunction tissues on joints and function. In our previous blog post, we discussed SIJ dysfunction and implementing the concept of mobilising before stabilising can assist with that too.

Dysfunction in muscles and joints via things like stiffness and poor positioning (posture) result in compensations that may not ultimately stop you from doing it, BUT will definitely cause you to do it in-efficiently. Those poor compensatory movement patterns then become learned bad habits and the load through specific joints and tissue becomes more pronounced, leading to injury.

This may explain why your stiff hips from sitting in an office chair all day, makes your back sore when you squat.

So here is how the frame work looks:

1. Mobilise: Pick a series of mobility drills or trigger ball drills that you know with assist with your current work out.

2. Stabilise: Perform a series of exercises that illicit some level of function within it, jump starting the muscles and joints so the body can then use it for whatever you intend.

3. Warm Up – Start your normal warm up of your choosing.

Keep in mind this is a concept that can apply to many different scenarios and is only limited by your imagination.

If you are stuck on some ideas, we would advise you to see your local sports physiotherapist, exercise physiologist or athletic trainer to give you some ideas.

We have a saying here at PROFORM – “Be proactive, not reactive.” Our physios at Pro-Form are eager to help you perform your best!

Don’t leave your health to chance. Own it.

Good luck out there!