A Quick Effective Full Body Warm-Up

For many gym-goers the thought of warming up prior to a workout is akin to torture or even worse it’s not a thought at all. Understandably, everyone is pressed for time in the gym and the idea of sacrificing precious minutes under the bar for a warm-up routine may seem counterintuitive.

In fact, the opposite is true.

Performing a proper warm-up will facilitate an optimal environment for training by raising body temperature, improving joint mobility and heightening central nervous system activity. Overall, developing a consistent, progressive and well-rounded warm-up routine will improve the quality of your workout in the short term and bolster your body’s durability over the long haul.

Since one of the questions I am asked most frequently is “How do you warm-up?” I thought this would be a great opportunity to share with you what my typical warm-up sequence may look like. Since my goals are pretty similar to that of the average trainee (Get stronger, get healthier and look good naked) I think that this routine would be a great option for anybody who needs a quick and effective warm-up.

My warm-up always follows a period of foam rolling and active mobility drills, specifically the Functional Range Conditioning drills developed by Dr. Andreo Spina. I plan to expand further on my mobility routine in future blog posts but for now we’ll just focus on the warm-up itself.

The warm-up circuit will prepare your body for training by improving core muscle sequencing, stabilizing hip shoulder and thoracic range of motion and increasing body temperature. The routine can be performed entirely with bodyweight but external resistance can be added if you desire to increase the difficulty.

Perform the following sequence one time though as follows..

1. Segmental Rolling x 2 each way upper and lower body
2. Inchworm Walkout x 10 yards
3. Bear Crawl x 10 yards forwards + 10 yards backwards
4. Lateral Crawl x 10 yards each direction
5. Thoracic Bridge x 5 each way
6. Push-Up x 15
7. Toe Touch Squat x 10
8. Walking Lunge x 10 each
9. Cossack Squat x 10 each
10. SLDL x 10 each
11. Turkish Get Up x 5 each

This article was written by Kevin Carr, C.S.C.S., LMT Co-Owner of Movement As Medicine and Strength and Conditioning Coach at Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning. He can be contacted at Kevin@movement-as-medicine.com

Originally published at movement-as-medicine.com.