When people are short on time at the gym, one of the first things they tend to skip is a proper warm-up. They walk through the door, grab some weights and jump right into the workout because they want to make every minute count.
I understand the thinking, but the warm-up is not wasted time. It is part of the workout.
A proper warm-up prepares your muscles, joints, cardiovascular system and nervous system for the work you are about to do. It helps transition your body from whatever you were doing before you arrived, whether that was sitting at a desk, driving in the car or simply being inactive, into a body that is ready to squat, lunge, push, pull, run, jump and lift.
At Bodies By Design, we have always placed a lot of importance on teaching our clients how to warm up correctly because we want them prepared before the intensity of the workout begins.
As you begin moving, your heart rate gradually increases and more blood starts flowing to your working muscles. Muscle temperature rises, your joints begin moving through a greater range of motion, and your nervous system starts preparing your body to produce force more efficiently.
In simple terms, you are taking your body from resting mode into training mode.
The National Strength and Conditioning Association explains that an effective dynamic warm-up can help improve blood flow, range of motion, nerve transmission and the body’s ability to produce strength and power.
That matters because the goal should not simply be to survive the workout. We want the body prepared to perform well during it.
A warm-up should be more than casually walking on a treadmill for five minutes.
A good dynamic warm-up should include movements that prepare you for what you are about to do.
If your workout includes squats or lunges, your warm-up should prepare your hips, knees and ankles. If you are going to press overhead, your shoulders and upper back need to be ready. If you are going to run, jump or perform explosive exercises, you should gradually introduce faster movements before asking your body to perform them at full intensity.
Think high knees, walking lunges, hip mobility, arm movements, bodyweight squats, core activation and light versions of the exercises you will eventually perform with more resistance.
You are not just trying to get warm.
You are rehearsing good movement before adding resistance, speed and fatigue.
One of the biggest reasons I believe people should take their warm-up seriously is injury risk.
No warm-up can guarantee that you will never get injured. Injuries can happen for many reasons, including previous injuries, poor technique, training too hard too quickly, fatigue and lack of recovery.
However, properly designed warm-ups that include movement, balance, strength, stability and muscle activation can help prepare the body for the physical demands ahead.
That is an important distinction. I would never tell someone that warming up makes them injury-proof. What I will say is that asking a prepared body to perform is a much better approach than asking a cold, stiff body to immediately start lifting heavy weights.
The American Heart Association also recommends gradually warming up before exercise so your heart rate, breathing and circulation can increase progressively rather than going from rest directly into harder activity.
Another common mistake is thinking that holding a few stretches is the same thing as warming up.
Static stretching can be useful, particularly when someone is working on flexibility, but before most strength and conditioning workouts, I want people moving.
A proper warm-up should include active movement and should eventually begin to resemble the workout itself.
That is why at Bodies By Design, our clients learn a structured warm-up as part of their training. It is not something we simply tell them to do while we wait for the workout to start. We teach it because movement quality matters, and we want our clients to eventually understand how to prepare their own bodies properly.
You can learn more about how we structure our coaching and workouts on our Bodies By Design Training page.
There is another benefit that gets overlooked: warming up can actually improve how you perform.
When your muscles are warm, your joints are moving well and your nervous system has had a chance to practice the movement, you can often move with better control and produce force more effectively.
Instead of spending the first several exercises trying to loosen up, you arrive at the working portion of the session ready to train.
Over time, that matters.
A better squat, better lunge, stronger push and more controlled movement can all contribute to better training quality. And better training quality, repeated consistently, is what produces results.
We have seen this with our own clients. Many people come to us initially struggling with basic movements and even the warm-up itself. As their fitness improves, the same movements become easier, their endurance increases and they are able to handle more challenging workouts. You can see examples of that progress on our Bodies By Design Results page.
People sometimes think skipping their warm-up saves them five or ten minutes.
I look at it differently.
Those few minutes may help you move better, perform better and prepare your body for everything you are about to ask it to do. That is a pretty good return on a small amount of time.
So the next time you are tempted to walk into the gym and immediately grab a heavy weight, remember this:
Your workout does not start after your warm-up. Your warm-up is where your workout starts.
Committed to your overall health,