This Might Be the Most Essential Part of Your Workout - the Warmup

Chatting with our member Ben...

Ben tells me, "Yeah, I think I tweaked something the other day. I was hurrying. An insane week, super-busy. I kinda rushed through my warmup, didn't do all the Movement Prep stuff. I felt something pull, or maybe pop a little, in my right shoulder, like, right about here." Ben points to his shoulder on our Zoom call. "What do you think I did?"

Well, what I think Ben did was shortchange his warmup and by doing so, substantially increase his risk of injury.

Listen, folks. The warmup (or what we call "Movement Prep") is important. It's essential. It becomes even more essential with each passing year and decade. Rushing through it, or skipping it altogether, will set us on an inevitable course to injury.

But I get it. We're busy. We don't have a bunch of time to labor through a 20-25 min warmup. On some days, we're lucky to have 20-25 minutes total to complete the entire workout.

So, what should we do?

Let me start by asserting what we should NOT do... we should NOT skip or shortchange our warmup.

Warmups should follow a pattern - from more general movement that loosens us up to more exercise-specific movements that mimic the precise lifts or exercises that we'll be doing.

The harder and more complex the workout and exercises planned, the more extensive the warmup should be. On days that I pull heavy deadlifts, my warmup might be a full 25-30 minutes before I begin my work sets. I've wrecked my back enough to know what happens when I don't allow enough time to be thoroughly prepared.

Given how busy we are, I wanted to give you a simple but comprehensive full-body warmup routine that I've used for at least 15 years. Check out this YouTube playlist to see the individual movements. Each short video has some brief explanations.

Coaching points:

  • This whole routine takes me about 5-6 minutes

  • I'll do 2-5 reps of each move, holding them for roughly 5 seconds each

  • I do this warmup for almost every workout, whether it's a run, ruck, lift, or Work Capacity

  • Add more specific movements after you complete these to drill particular movements or lifts

  • DON'T be like Ben. Don't skip your warmup!

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Paul Reilly