Before you hit the road or the gym, you want to get the blood flowing and get the right muscles activated. What does activation mean? It means that the connection between your brain and muscles is turned on so that you recruit the proper muscles for the job at hand (or feet). If you just go out cold, your body will default to using muscles that may not be the best for that activity. If a joint is restricted and you don’t loosen it up, your mechanics will be off which will add extra stress to the joint and lead potentially to injury.
Don’t look at the warm up as taking away from the workout. Spending 5 minutes on a warmup will increase the effectiveness of your workout and prevent injuries. There is no perfect one-size-fits-all warm up routine but below are some examples of what you can do. Don’t be afraid to mix it up to cater to your needs!
This warmup is great for lower body exercise:
– 30 seconds body weight squats (feet shoulder width apart, arms outstretched in front of your body, make sure your knees are not dropping forward in front of your toes)
– 30 seconds reverse lunge with side stretch (move one leg back into a reverse lunge, with your hand on the same side reach toward the sky and then across your body, hold for 2 seconds and return to standing)
– 30 seconds lateral lunge (start with feet together, take a wide step out to the side, bending that knee while keeping the other leg straight, bend to 90 deg and then return to standing, repeat with the other leg)
– 30 seconds high kick toe touches (while keeping your legs straight, kick one leg forward and reach forward to touch your toes around waist high, alternate legs)
– 30 second knee hugs (while standing straight, lift one knee up into your chest, wrap your arms around the knee and hold for 2 seconds, alternate legs)
– 10 hip lifts (while lying on your back, bring your feet up against your bottom, then lift your hips toward the sky until you have a flat line from your shoulders to your knees, hold for 2 seconds, return to the ground)
Cycling: in addition to the exercises above, add some of the following to warm up your neck:
– Neck mobility: drop your chin down to you chest, next lift your chin to the sky, then rotate your chin towards the right shoulder, repeat on the left, finish by side bending your right ear to your shoulder and repeat on the left
-Thoracic spine mobility: drop your chin to your chest and let your shoulders drop to your chest to feel the stretch in the upper back, pull into a bear hug and rotate side to side, while holding the bear hug, lean to the right and then to the left. Finish with shoulder squeezes: with your hands behind your head, bring your elbows together in front of you, then spread your elbows wide to open up the chest
Swimming: warm up your shoulders:
– arm circles, starting in small forward motion circles gradually expanding the circle, then switch directions
shoulder squeezes: with your hands behind your head, bring your elbows together in front of you, then spread your elbows wide to open up the chest
What about stretching? Stretching is a great post workout activity once things are warmed up. You will be able to get into a deeper more effective stretch after you workout.