How important is Warming Up?

Yay! The gyms are reopening this weekend! Many exercise options are now available to us after lockdown, you can now head back to your weights workouts, in person yoga classes, spinning or dance-based fun!

I recently wrote a blog post with tips for returning to exercise. In that post I told you that you should always do a proper warm up. Preparing yourself for the specific exercise you are doing is a simple concept but it can really amp up your workout! Treat yourself like an athlete and put a little extra effort into your warm up.

On my Strength & Conditioning Course, we were taught about the RAMP warm up protocols that are used in elite sports and by athletes. These ideas can be easily used with a home or gym based workout, it helps you focus on movement quality, skills development and unlocking your performance potential.

RAMP stands for the following;

Raise – Increase muscle temperature, core body temperature, blood flow, muscle elasticity and neural activation.

Activate – Engage the muscles in preparation for the upcoming session.

Mobilise – Focus on movement patterns which will be used during the upcoming session.

Potentiate – Gradually increasing the stress on the body in preparation for the upcoming session.

Let’s break down each section, then I’ll give you a great RAMP warm up for your next weights based session.

Raise

First, focus on raising your body temperature with some low intensity cardio. If you are doing a home-based workout, this could be as simple as jogging on the spot, a quick run round the garden, jumping jacks or spotty dogs. If you are in the gym then hop on the cross trainer, treadmill or rower; whichever piece of cardio equipment you enjoy.

If you are warming up for team sports such as football, then this might be a good time to do some shuttle runs or some acceleration drills.

Do anything to get your heart rate up, this will warm up your muscles, increase blood flow and build muscle elasticity in preparation for your workout.

Activate

Next, focus on activating the muscles you will use in the upcoming session. For a normal weights session, you will be using all the large muscle groups; legs, glutes, core, back, chest and shoulders. So, you should focus on movement that is going to start engaging these muscle groups while keeping them warm. Compound exercises like bodyweight squats, pushups, front lunges with a twist, glute bridges, fire hydrants, birddogs and shoulder rolls are perfect exercises for the activate stage.

Mobilise

The next phase focuses on mobilising your body for different movement patterns. The movement patterns for a normal weights workout include squat, hinge, lunge, push, pull, twist and carry.

You will have covered most of these movements in the activate stage so try to fill in the blanks - most people forget to put in rotational movements and the hip hinge movement.

Potentiate

Lastly, the potentiate stage focuses on gradually increasing the intensity so you can hit the ground running with your session. Think of this stage as the ‘warm-up set’, increase the intensity by adding in some jump movements or some weighted exercises.

At the end of this warm up, your body will be prepared for whatever exercise you choose to do. When you are planning your own warm up, think about the muscles and movements you will be doing during your activity. If you are doing a spin class then get warmed up on the bike, warm up the lower body, shoulders and core with squats, lunges, shoulder rolls and birddogs.

It is also important to say…if you have any specific knots and niggles then it is important that you take the time to stretch or roll these out before you start your workout. Use a foam roller to roll the area out - you can do this increase mobility and flexibility too. For instance, my ankle and lower leg mobility isn’t great so I would normally add some foam rolling to my lower legs into my warm up routine.

I have put together a simple RAMP warm up for you to use next time you are doing a weights-based session. It shouldn’t take any longer than 10-15 minutes but it will help you get the best out of your workout, try to move through the workout at a good pace as it will help you stay warm.

20 x star jumps / jumping jacks

10 x spotty dogs

10 x bodyweight squats

10 x front lunges with a twist (5 each side)

10 x lateral lunges (5 each side)

10 x glute bridges

10 x fire hydrants (5 each side)

10 x deadbugs (5 each side)

10 x hinge & reach

10 x light dumbbell overhead press

10 x light dumbbell bent over row