Warming up properly

Hi 

can anybody explain or give a few e.g of how to warm up properly when using the foundation courses? For e.g upper body?

Hi Zackary, 

Great question! The key to a good warm up is to touch up on all parts of the body. You can do certain foundation exercises as part of your warm up.

I personally love to go through all joints making circles, neck circles, shoulder circles, hip circles, knees and ankles. Then stretch some of your tightest areas and stretch the areas that you. 

Do you have any of the stretch courses?

 

Hi,

 

A warm-up (done correctly) ticks many boxes, so shouldn’t include just one thing. It should be split up into three phases:

1) Generic phase - general activity aimed to raise temp, HR, etc. Think light jogging, changes of directions, jumping jacks, etc... until basically a light sweat is formed.

2) Range of movement phase - moving the joints through their full ROM, especially those about to be exercise. Think arm circles, leg-swings, etc. NB: Passive stretching is contraindicated in a warm-up.

3) Specific phase - the movements that you’ll be doing, but at a lower intensity. Primes the body for the task at hand.

 

So using your OP re upper body, it’d look something like:

1) Jogging (on spot, or in circles etc) but including punching to front/side/upwards, chest presses, etc for ~3mins

2) Large arms circles, static chest presses, shoulder flex ion/extension

3) Low repetitions of push-ups, pull-ups, etc (relative to your current capacity... 3 pull-ups is a max effort for some, but a warm up for others)

 

Hope this helps,

 

Michael