A Better Warm-up

I've heard this far too many times: A trainer walks up to a client and asks, "Have you warmed up yet? No? OK, jump on the treadmill."

I heard it again last night at the gym. Then the trainer took his client to the bench press.

What's so bad about that?

As Craig Ballantyne once wrote in his blog, warming up on a treadmill gets you ready to run on a treadmill. In other words, your warm-up should get you ready for what you're about to do. And running on a treadmill doesn't get you ready for the bench press.

Before upper-body work, you'll want to do moves like arm circles and stick-ups (check out the picture of Craig for this one, and it starts with the arms lower down). Even pushups work, especially if you throw some variety into them with, say, the T pushup (without the weights for the warm-up).

One of the absolute best resources is a manual and DVD from Bill Hartman and Mike Robertson called Inside-Out: The Ultimate Upper Body Warm-up.

And this type of warm-up won't add any time to your workout. But it will do a better job of protecting your from injuries.