6 Steps for an amazing warmup

How to warmup in 6 steps. 

This is one question that never gets old, how to warmup properly. Should you do treadmill, should you elliptical, should you stretch, not stretch, static stretch, dynamic stretch, pnf, light weight sets of the exercises, PAP aaaaaarrrgrggrgggggghhhhhhh! 

Let’s settle this account for once and all. 

Warmups are a critical part of any training program and in this article I’m going to cover tips to warmup properly. 

Steps of a proper warmup 

#1)  Raising the core temperature  : If you are working out in the morning, right after bed, YOU NEED TO RAISE YOUR CORE TEMPERATURE, there shouldn’t be any exception to this rule. When you’re sleeping you’re core temperature drops below what it is while you’re awake. Being just a little bit warm right before workout can be the difference between a missed lift and a new PR. So get your heart rate up. Do a moderate intensity activity for 5-10 min. For eg: a circuit of jumping jacks, mountain climbers, jump ropes, 30 counts each repeated for 5-10 mins (slowly increase the intensity over a couple of mins). You can forego this step if you workout in the evening and if you have an active job, but if you’ve been sitting on your ass all day in an AC office, a little bit of jumping won’t hurt. 

#2). Dynamic stretching  : This step can be merged with step one, the exercises to raise the core temperature could be selected so as to specifically move the target muscle groups of the day through their entire range. 

#3 Static stretching  : Once you’re warmup and you have alittle bit of sweat on you, you can hold your tight muscles or foam roll them. Note though, only do this step only if you need. Suppose you’re returning from an injury, or have started working out for the first time in your 50s, it is quite likely that some of your joints are quite stiff, spending a little bit of time to mobilise them will be a worthy investment. If, you’re a fairly healthy human specimen, forego this step on to the next one. 

#4).  Stability : Now we are slowly slipping into the strength realm, from onwards every step will continue to build your strength. In this step you you need to work your major joints so that the musculature keeping them active is ready to produce the maximum amount of force. Example of stability exercise will be, scapular pushup which moves the scapula thrwough full range of retraction and protraction, this wakes up the smaller muscles that hold the scapula steady while you’re doing bench press or are doing lat pulldown. Stability is essential for strength. 

#5). Move your joints through the actual movements that you’re going to do in your workout : If you’re going to squat, do bodyweight squats, or do them with an empty bar, for deadlift, deadlift with a PVC pipe or an empty bar, for bench press do pushups off the wall, or a bench. The key is to work the target muscle groups through the entire movement and feel the contraction of the correct muscle. 

#6). PAP : PAP or Post-Activation Potentiation is the concept by which the muscle increases it’s firing capacity if it is subjected to a load more than that we will be lifting in the session, What that does is, it allows us to lift much heavier weight resulting in much better strength, and hypertrophy results. For eg: Doing jump squats, or plyo-hip thrusts can supercharge your squats and deadlifts respectively. I will share PAP strategies in a separate article. 

#7). How much warmup do you need bro? Go do your workout! 

Steps #1, #2, #3, #4 should not take more than 20 minutes total. And then steps #5, and #6 plus your workout should be around 45 minutes. 

So here it is guys a super effective 6 step warmup, and a blueprint for a 65 minute workout. Hopefully you’ll use it and make yourself stronger, leaner, and more muscular.