Let’s get this out of the way: warming up can be boring. Like many of life’s mundane but simply necessary tasks, there is the temptation to procrastinate, cut corners, or just skip them all together.
I have fond memories from my 20s of just jumping into a workout with only a few minutes of preparation, or sometimes none at all. Ahh youth — it’s beautiful because it doesn’t last ;).
The benefits of a good warm-up cannot be overstated. I think the primary daily benefit is just feeling good when you get to the main part of your training for the day. Time to get your mind and body into a ready state.
On the meta level, with proper warm-ups you are preventing injuries (muscle and joint) and acute stress (nausea, sudden overheating, cardiac, etc.), enabling better positions during the intensive pieces, forming positive feedback loops with your training (feeling good and prepared increases enjoyment, which makes you want to do it again), and enabling a more mindful approach to your engagement with exercise (time for drills, workout strategy, mini dry runs, etc.).
Here is the actual warm-up I did yesterday, which is pretty close to what I do everyday at this point:
3-5 minutes foam rolling, focusing on back (honestly still feeling soreness in my upper back from 21.3/21.4), glutes, hamstrings, quads (ouch), IT bands. Also defended myself from “puppy assault” (if you have a dog you know getting down on the floor is like an invitation to play) all the while :)!
1 minute each side couch/wall stretch (or spider lunge), focusing on scaling to find a level that feels helpful rather than just painful. I try to transition directly from the foam roller to this to minimize my own resistance to getting started. Stay in a flow!
1 minute each shoulder/scapula of supernova ball on the wall. This is really helpful for waking up the shoulders.
1 minute inverted hang: this is unique to me (probably), but I recently got some inversion boots off Amazon to help with decompressing my lower back, and find it helpful to do on most days that involve receiving cleans or heavy squats in general. I do not recommend this for everyone, but you can do lighter decompression exercises with a strong resistance band attached to your feet/ankles (carefully!).
2 sets: 20 second “blocked” (or stall bar) narrow grip bar hang + 20 sec each side cossack or single leg bottom squat hold. 30-60 rest after each set. The bar hang is specifically to help with my overhead mobility as related to the jerk and push press. I find it gives me that extra 10% I otherwise find difficult to get to. Hard to find a video of this, but basically:
- Barbell in rack at normal squat height
- Pull-up bar above barbell (~7 ft)
- Bar pad on barbell (not required, but more comfortable)
- Reach up and hang from pull-up bar while bar pad blocks you from swinging
- Lift feet ~1 ft out in front to create additional leverage
At this point, if I have any conditioning planned for the sessions or if it is cold (<55 deg F) I will sometimes opt to do some 30 second row and/or bike intervals to warm that up, and increase core temperature more directly. My preferred method is to alternate exercises for 3 rounds: 30 sec row, 30 sec rest, 30 sec bike, 30 sec rest.
Next I will normally do a series of 10 pass throughs, 10 good mornings, and 10 overhead squats with a resistance band (for pass throughs + OHS), all the while having a slingshot hip circle looped just above the knees. This increases hip rotator activation while hinging (good mornings) or squatting (OHS), which makes it easier to open the hips under load later.
I will usually tack on 5-7 tall snatch balances to get used to dropping and landing with speed + force before using the barbell.
If I’m doing Clean and Jerks, I will sometimes do some banded front rack here, as it helps a lot with shoulder ROM and speed for the front rack position.
After this, if I am planning on doing significant overhead lifts, I like to wake my shoulders up a little more in the pressing mode with 1-3x ~20 sec handstand holds, shoulder taps, or walks. This will help me be ready to hit a heavy jerk or snatch before the weight necessitates it. Go go gadget arms!
Finally, the empty bar.
The barbell warm-up here depends a lot on what the specific lifts are for the day. In general, I will do some combination of:
-3-5 No contact muscle snatches
-3-5 strict presses (SN (BTN) or CL grip)
-20 sec back squat bottom hold
-3-5 Push Presses (BTN + FR)
-3-5 tall snatch balances
-3-5 tall cleans (if C&J focus)
-3-5 Pause Jerks, combo of BTN + FR (if C&J focus)
-3-5 Tall Snatches (if Sn focus)
I like to do this in one set, or 2 sets if I’m feeling the need for a break. Will sometimes forget pieces, but more recently I focus on the Tall Snatch and BTN Push Press + Jerks, as those help me most with my weak links.
Overall, if I’m on my game this is a 15-20 minute series. If I’m lagging, 30 minutes :). But the feeling and improvements I realize through this process make it all worth it. I find that I can get all this and my main elements plus accessories consistently in 75 minutes, assuming minimal distractions/goofing off on social media. If there was a metcon involved it would take however much longer than this, but I would probably cut stuff out to make room for that rather than push 90+ minutes. The longer I train the more I like sessions with fewer things in them.
In summary:
-5 min Foam Roll/massage work
-5 min Basic ROM work
-5 min Mobility for your weak links
-5 min Increase core temp
-5 min Empty bar or specific tool prep
-5 min to spare 😉
-3-2-1 Go!
Coach Mauricio