A Warm Up That Works

It can almost be said that your workout or performance is only as good as your preparation because after all, “failing to prepare is preparing to fail”. That being said, the simple fact that you read this blog means that you are ahead of the rest of your competition. The purpose of a warm up is to generally increase the body's core temperature and prepare it for the upcoming activity. The old days of running a lap and doing a stretch for the quads, groins and calves are long gone, but unfortunately most teams still use it.

Your new warm up is different. It entails myofascial release, joint mobilisation and muscle activation techniques followed by dynamic flexibility.

Myofascial Release

It is becoming more main stream but this is where tennis balls and foam rollers are used as a form of self massage which is best used prior to training or games to iron out any knots and restriction you may have, especially in the lower body.

Joint Mobilisation

If you are a regular reader of the Aussie Rules Training blogspot, then you may recall a series of posts on the Joint by Joint Approach to Training. This basically involves training a joint in respect to what it actually requires for optimal function (stability or mobility). During our warm up we will hit the joints requiring mobility to ensure this is addressed in an isolated fashion, before integrating, during the actual resistance training sessions.

Muscle Activation

As activity levels within society decreases, so does the use of some of the most important muscles, especially the supporting ones. Areas of the body like the glutes and core muscles, play a huge supporting role to the spine and represents the plant from which your power is developed and transferred fro during performance endeavours. When these muscles aren't activated then the stress that they should be taking is moved to another joint or set of muscles and it is then that those muscles get over worked and/or tired, and an injury occurs. We activate these muscles so that we can actually retrain them during the actual sessions and thus, improving our on field performance and movement efficiency.

Dynamic Flexibility

This facilitates muscle contraction and awakens the neural/nervous system which actually primes you more for movement then static stretching which actually decreases the stretch reflex and peak power output. You are preparing the body for movement so doing stretches where you don't move doesn’t make sense. Dynamic flexibility drills are used to activate and dynamically stretch inhibited and tight muscles as well as increasing core temperature, putting us into an optimal arousal state for activity.

Warm Up Sequencing

Myofascial Release – roll golf ball on soles of feet

Tennis Ball – calves, soleus, pecs, glutes

Foam Roll – itb, quadriceps, abductors, lats, thoracic spine

Joint Mobilisation – ankle, abductors, quadriceps, hip flexors

Glute Activation – hip thrust or prone hip extensions, mini band side step or Jane Fonda’s

Hip Mobility – hip rockbacks, dynamic knee to knee stretch

Dynamic Flexibility – walking knee lift, walking buttkicks, overhead walking lunge, scapula push up, wall slides