When most new people come to Method Strength & Performance, there always seems to be something lacking in their program….the warm up. Most of the time, when I ask them what their warm up consists of, I get one of two answers. The first one is “nothing.” The other is just as bad, “I walk on the treadmill.” Here at Method Strength & Performance, we look at the warm up as one of the most important parts of the program. Back in November, Charlie Weingroff explained to us during his seminar that the warm up is trying to achieve 4 things:
- Increase tissue temperature
- Prime the mobility that you already have
- Rehearse the movements that will be done in the training session
- Prep the central nervous system (CNS) for the upcoming training session
At Method Strength & Performance, we do all 4 things in roughly 10-15 minutes. We break our warm up down into 5 categories
- Soft Tissue Work: applying a foam roll, The Stick, or lacrosse ball to some “tight” areas
- Static Stretches: Apply static stretches for up to 30 seconds to “tight” areas
- Joint Mobility: Thoracic spine, hips, and ankles are our intended spots we hit for repetitions
- Activation Series: We want to wake up some of the muscles. Here we focus on mostly glute and hip work
- Movement Prep: Random movements that would include split squats, squats, pushups, crawls, skips, shuffling, etc.
When we are done with the warm up, we will achieve increased tissue temperature, prime the mobility that we have, rehearse movements of the upcoming training session, and prep the CNS. We are now ready to train! This concept will work whether you’re an athlete or someone wanting to lose fat. I have heard many times from people performing our warm ups that they are looser and have better workouts!