The World's Greatest Warm Up
Why is warming up so important?
Well, you want to ensure your joints are moving freely and easily, all the right muscles are activated and your body is primed and ready to go.
The most important reason for doing a warm-up is to prevent injury during exercise.
Keeping the muscles warm will prevent acute injuries such as hamstring strains and will stave off overuse injuries by allowing the body to prepare steadily and safely.
Getting your body warm and ready to go is the best way to prevent injury and get the most out of your workout
Warming up before hitting the weights is often something people neglect, but it’s well worth your time. Here’s how I like to warm up…
Follow my video demonstration or read the complete session below.
1. Elevate The Heart Rate
To start off the warm-up, get your heart rate up and blood pumping with five minutes on the assault bike or alternative cardiovascular equipment. Try and gradually increase your pace over the five minutes.
2. Create movement in the joints
Next, let’s warm up the joints! I follow a dynamic sequence that hits the ankles, knees, hips and thoracic spine. This warm up will reduce the risk of injury in training.
- The Jefferson curl – creates movement in the spine.
- Hand walkouts – target the core/shoulders
- The deep lunge – engages the hip flexors
- The thoracic rotation – creates movement in the upper back
- Hip circles – warms up the hip joint so it moves freely
- The forward knee to hamstring stretch – hits the patella tendon and hamstring allowing movement through knee flexion to extension
See Ella’s video above for how to perform each exercise.
3. Activate your muscles
Finally get your muscles engaged and ready to work with some activation exercises.
To fire up the glutes I recommend walking lunges and banded glute work such as the banded squats, glute bridges and clams.
Bear crawls are great for core, hip and shoulder activation. They may look easy but don’t be fooled, they’re really quite challenging.
Choose a few activation exercises to round up your warm up and you’re ready to workout.
That’s my ultimate warm up!
Ideally, you should spend around 15-20 mins on your purposeful warm up, which is enough time to get the body ready for physical activity.
This sequence is perfect for any time or any gym session you have planned. Give it a go today.
Ella Martyn is a qualified personal trainer, online fitness coach, FMG Fitness Pro, mentor and competitor.
An advocate for selfcare and flexible dieting, Ella has worked in the fitness industry for over a decade and aims to inspire other women to reach their peak.
More about Ella Martyn
