General warm-up

[Étienne Lajeunesse]

Hi coaches

I know that you guys recommend to do some "cardio" with fast, repetitive movements as a general warm-up first. But I want to know what do you think about general mobilization, in moving each body part seperatly before going to the general "cardio" part?

[Paul Wallbridge]

From a competitive sports background, you should always do some form of gentle mobility before cardio work - especially if doing hard/fast repetitive actions - to lower the risk of injury.

so many torn ligaments and muscles could be avoided...

[Étienne Lajeunesse]

Yeah, I was thinking of that too.  I asked because I usually see coaches recommanding light cardio first.  Without saying that's bad, I thought moving a bit each pieces before could do a good job.

[Paul Wallbridge]

A general stretching of the joints and muscles used is all that's needed. It should only take 5 minutes to stretch for a run, just enough to get the blood flowing and loosen up.

[Everett Carroll]

Hey Etienne, 

You can go either way there. A limber prior to cardio is totally fine. I typically feel comfortable performing light cardio first and then limbering. Light being the key.

[Mats Trane]

I go through all my joints.

neck (rotations), shoulder (gemran arm swings or Xio ju Pings unweighted), elbows (rotations) , wrists (stretch), spine (cat cow), hips (swivel Hips) knees and ankles.

then I do 5 min Cardio (bike or light jog)