Everyone is familiar with the importance of warm-ups from a performance and injury-prevention point of view. However, it is often a subject which leaves some people uncertain on ‘what the best warm-up is’ for their given activity/sport.
Pillars of the Ideal Warm-up
The primary aims for a warm-up are:
1. Increase body temperature, blood flow and oxygen availability to the working muscles.
2. Prepare any stiff joints or painful areas with some specific exercises.
3.Prime your neuromuscular system for the demands of your session (important if exercise involves high speed, change of direction and/or high force output).
When deciding on your warm-up it can useful to break it down into 3 sections:
1. General Heart Rate Raiser
Ideally mimicking the demands of the activity you’re about to begin. It is generally just a lower intensity version of what you are building towards. For example, light slow jogging before a running or pitch-based sport session.
2. Strengthen and Lengthen Mobility Work
Focus on the muscle groups that are actually going to be in use here or an area where you have had some issues in the past. The link between flexibility and injury prevention is actually not as strong as some people think, so finding ways to incorporate exercises that have more of a strength demand might be useful here.
If you have had rehab work for a previous injury, this is a good time to incorporate some of those exercises. For example, Calf raises/heel drops at the edge of a step for calves, Split squats for quads/hip flexors, Single leg RDLs for hamstrings.
3. Neural Prep and Sport-Specific Demands
Finally, we can introduce some exercise-specific demands. Here we practice some higher force outputs with more speed/intent to drive more neural recruitment to the working muscles. This should slowly build in intensity until you are ready to begin your chosen exercise.
This could be some accelerations and short intervals at higher speed running if prepping for a run, the introduction of some change of direction work/jump/lands efforts and bringing in elements of the sport itself for sports like football, or some warm-up sets of a specific lift if you are training in the gym eg. Squats at 60% of your planned working weight.
Conclusion
The complexity and intensity of the demands of the activity that you are preparing for will dictate how comprehensive your warm-up ought to be. Prepping for a football match may require 20-30 minutes of preparation, while the ideal warm-up before a light run or a gym session might only be 5-10 minutes in duration.
Your warm-up is very important and shouldn’t be ignored. But it also needn’t be a stale, boring or fixed routine. Adding novelty and using it as an opportunity to concentrate on certain facets of technique, stability, skill and mobility can help to develop your athletic profile over time. Program it to yield the results you want!
At The Physio Ward, we can work with you one-to-one and show you ‘how to’ instead of saying ‘don’t do’, giving you the confidence to stay active and continue doing what you enjoy. Consider visiting us if you'd like more information on how best to prepare yourself for your sporting pursuits - whether it's your first run, or your 10th competitive footballing season. You can book an appointment here, or call us at 01-6870302.
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