5 Warm-Up Tips That Save Time & Prevent Injury

Some of the biggest barriers to exercise are lack of time and injury, and how you prepare for a workout in the warm up can largely minimize these roadblocks.

How do you approach your warm-up?  Maybe you do a few stretches you learned as a kid, do some mobility flow you found online, or go straight to a machine/bar and start right into your lift? 

While these aren’t inherently bad, they can lead to quite a few barriers to keeping a consistent exercise routine.   The priority in any start to a workout is to prepare the body for the specific movement patterns of the day, especially the main work.  Meaning, if you are set to do overhead pressing, your warm-up better prepare you for it. 

While there are always considerations based on individuality (i.e. history, limitations/injuries, mobility, sleep, recovery) that will dictate the priorities in a warm up, here are our five general guidelines to prepare for a workout, using the strict barbell overhead press (OHP) as an example: 

1. Increase body temperature

2. Short duration stretching

3. Specific muscle activation

4. Stabilization

5. Power 

A key feedback to manage with these warm-ups is to find a “sweet spot” of preparing your body, without over-fatiguing.  This is where your current individual fitness level can have a big impact on the duration, intensity, and volume of the warm up protocols.  Don’t do too much in the warm-up, or by the time you get to the meat and potatoes of the workout, you’re already gassed. 

1. Increase body temperature

Plenty of data exists regarding the benefits of breaking a sweat at the start of the workout.  It doesn’t need to be complex, you simply need to get moving, connect with how your body is feeling for the day, and get warm.  Initially, start slowly and ramp up to a point where your heart and respiratory rate moderately increases and you begin to break a sweat. Generally, 2-5 min of movements like marching, jumping jacks, jump rope, ladder drills, or another form of movement you enjoy, will do the trick. Remember, the purpose here is to promote better movement through increased circulation, nervous system coordination and soft tissue extensibility (e.g. warm tissue lengthens, contracts and moves more fluidly).

2. Short duration stretching

It’s important to recognize that for a desired movement or position, there often can be specific tissue that limits or restricts the goal alignment for the exercise.  Speaking to the OHP, the powerful lat (latissimus dorsi) muscle can be a large inhibitor of the overhead position (though the lack of function can be much more complex).  “Downregulating” the lat through static or dynamic stretching can often allow an individual to reach a limb position they were unable to prior.  Movements such as a childs pose with side bend or a pvc V-stretch, held for ~<30seconds can be effective in achieving the desired overhead position in the OHP (though poses should not be held for too long, or they may interfere with performance).

3. Specific muscle activation

Once the ‘inhibiting’ muscle has proper extensibility, the next step is to prime the antagonistic (i.e. the opposite muscle group which lengthens or relaxes in contrast to the working/contracting muscle group) which will pull the structure into the position and assist in stabilizing.  In this context,  the lower portion of the trap (trapezius) pulls the shoulder blades down and back, and in conjunction with the deltoids, rhomboids, and other intrinsic musculature, pulls the upper limbs into the overhead position.  Some great exercises that elicit this response are some form of Y exercise and/or a face-pull (either banded/cable, suspension trainer, or prone bodyweight) for 1-2 light sets of 8-15 reps at RPE 1-4 (rate of perceived exertion).  These exercises will establish body awareness and allow for quality mechanics in the OHP.

4. Stabilization

Once a connection is established between the brain and the body to help get into position and stabilize, continuing to gain general awareness (proprioception) of the joints and structures involved can greatly increase performance and reduce injury through stability.  This means exercises that are inherently unstable, that require synergistic action of supporting tissues (e.g. muscles, tendons, ligaments) to stabilize the area in the movement pattern. Exercises such as overhead carries  or bottoms-up kettlebell presses are highly effective in recruiting stabilization in real time, working a large number of muscles that must act together to maintain control throughout the movement.  Generally 1-2 sets of 20-30 seconds or 8-12 reps will get everything firing. 

5. Power

The last consideration would be to excite the central nervous system (CNS) through high-velocity power exercise(s).  The one caveat here is whether you are at the proper fitness level to do these safely.  Check out our Iron Sights Podcast episode where we talk about this in more depth, and if you feel you are not ready yet, simply skip step five.  If you do meet the prerequisites, the goal is to move as explosively as possible, picking a load that won’t accumulate too much fatigue.  Movements like a push press, or wall medicine ball toss' will do this effectively.  With these movements, sticking to 2-3 sets of 2-6 reps with a light load is a great place to start.  

Once you complete each of these steps, you are ready to get into the main work of the day.  Remember, these specific exercises are only an example to prepare for the OHP, but the general principles apply to any strength workout. 

Now start moving some weight!