A Better Warm-up, Part 3

I've touched on the benefits of using dynamic stretching to warm-up a couple of times before (here and here).

Today in its Play magazine, the New York Times trumpets this better way to stretch before a workout.

Of course I still see people come into the gym and perform static stretches before they work out, that is if they do anything at all. I'm certainly the only person I've ever seen at my gym who runs through the sort of warm-up that I follow.

A Better Warm-up, Part 2

Just as with lifting, you want to run through a warm-up before cardio that prepares you for what you're about to do. And that's exactly what I did yesterday before my cardio work. (My cardio involved running an arrow drill -- sprint five yards to the top of the arrow, shuffle about five steps to the left side of the arrow, back to the point, then shuffle to the right, back to the point, and then backpeddle to the start -- three times in a row with a minute rest between each set of three. There were seven sets of it, followed by three of a bodyweight circuit, both from the latest Men's Health. Then I was done, all in less than 30 minutes with the warm-up included.)

So I do things like jumping jacks, skipping, lunges and high-knee running in place. A warm-up like this also stretches the muscles, but does so in a dynamic manner instead of static manner, something Bill Hartman explained not too long ago. Experts believe that static stretching, the kind where you stretch and hold a muscle, can actually weaken the muscle, something you obviously don't want before a workout (it's fine afterwards).

Here's a great video from the James Madison University Strength and Conditioning Program showing a dynamic warm-up. It's fairly easy to do modify many of these so that they work standing in place, which makes them easier to do in a gym.

As we get older, injury prevention begins to become even more important. And dynamic warm-ups can play a big role in helping you stay injury free.

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.