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December 9 2019

How to Build a Warm-up That’s Actually Useful

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We see far too many people who warm-up by rolling around on the foam roller or riding the bike while scrolling on their cell phone.  While foam rolling or increasing heart rate might be part of a warm-up, performing these alone while scrolling Instagram is not the appropriate way to prepare the body for the upcoming training session.  Let’s talk about how to build a warm-up that’s actually useful.

 

OBJECTIVES OF A WARM-UP

The objective of the warm-up is to place the individual in optimal physiological, neurological and psychological state so that training capacity is at its maximum.  So, while rolling and smashing might be part of the warm-up, they are just one part of the strategy:

The physiological component of the warm-up involves getting the body ready by increasing heart rate and body temperature.  But we also need to think about whether there are soft tissue limitations that need to be addressed.

To reinforce efficient movement patterns, you have to be able to move efficiently. Limitations in movement that come from poor soft-tissue quality and/or mobility are a significant barrier to movement quality and need to be addressed if we hope to move more efficiently.

Getting neurologically prepared for the training session is about getting the nervous system activated, getting the necessary arousal for the upcoming session, which we certainly won’t achieve by scrolling Instagram.

The psychological component of the warm-up is different for every individual and depends on how they find their focus for the upcoming session.

So, let’s put as much thought into our warm-up exercises as we do into our training session.  I talk about this in my article “Stop Half-Assing your Warm-ups” on Thibarmy.com.

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WARM-UP USING THE MOBILIZATION-ACTIVATION-INTEGRATION SEQUENCE

Here’s an example of what an efficient warm-up for power cleans and squat cleans would look like, for example.

First, the Mobilization sequence will help us get physiologically ready, targeting areas that will be solicited in the training session.  With power cleans and squats cleans, the posterior chain is especially solicited, and it is wise to focus on hamstring extensibility.  Using an exercise to create length in a superset with an exercise to create tension within the range of motion is an effective strategy to allow muscle fibers to contract efficiently at longer lengths.  For example, use an active-assisted straight-leg raise to create length and then load the hamstrings using a single-leg Romanian deadlift.

This is followed up by an Activation sequence to target the neurological component of the warm-up.  There are two different types of nervous system activation: peripheral and central.  Peripheral activation refers to improving either the performance or the recruitment of a specific muscle or group of muscles.  Practically speaking, we are referring to practicing contracting a muscle before training it hard.  Think of your classic bodybuilding or mind-muscle connection exercises.  The methods of choice would be low resistance contractions focusing on the target muscle/groups of muscles and the quality of contraction of the muscle/groups of muscles.

For a warm-up for power cleans and squat cleans, we might decide to target the glutes because they are highly involved in creating powerful hip extension.  We would choose a warm-up exercise that involves practicing recruiting and contracting the glutes, whether that be Cook hip raise, single-leg hip thrusts, hip thrusts, etc.

Central activation an increase in the excitation of the central nervous system. Its purpose is to make the neurons fire faster and is achieved mostly via high tension, high acceleration or high skill movements.  In our current example, because we are going into a power session, we have chosen an explosive, high acceleration exercise that lends itself well to powerful hip extension: the kneeling plyo get-up.

In the Integration sequence, we are focused on the psychological preparation and we are also moving into variations of specific movement patterns or of the main lift for the session.  For some, the warm-up exercises in the Integration phase might be corrective exercises, for others, technique drills.  To warm-up for the clean, an effective technical drill is the tall clean drill, which I learned from Christian Thibaudeau.

Using the Mobilization-Activation-Integration sequence for Movement Optimization is an effective strategy to build specific and individualized warm-ups that will serve to prepare the body and the individual for the upcoming training session.

Here’s what a full warm-up for cleans would look like using this strategy:

MOBILIZATION:

A1. Active-assisted straight-leg raise 2 x8 per leg
A2. Single-leg RDL 2 x 8 per leg
B. Bench T-spine extension 2 x 12 reps

PERIPHERAL ACTIVATION:

A. Cook hip raise 2 x 8 per leg (hold peak 2 seconds)
B. Straight-leg glute bridge 2 x 8 (hold peak 2 seconds)

CENTRAL ACTIVATION:

A. Kneeling plyo get-ups 1 x 5 reps
B. Box jumps 1 x 5 reps

INTEGRATION:

A. Tall clean drill 2 x 3-5 reps
B. Session-specific warm-up (ramp up sets, etc.)

 

WATCH THE FULL VIDEO for cues on how to perform the warm-up exercises discussed!

 

 


Mai-Linh Dovan M.SC., CAT(C)
Certified Athletic Therapist
Founder of Rehab-U

 

Movement Optimization Course

 

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