Warm Up question?

[Cody Clark]

Hi,

Should a good warm up routine include stretching and joint prepartion or should it just have basic exercises that get the blood and heart pumping. I was wondering I've been trying to put together my own warmup for myself and looking at some of the warm ups on here they all have stuff like running and basic calethinsics to warm themselves up but, not much stretching. Should stuff like joint prepartion movements like pike stretch, cuban press, and wall walks be done at the end of the workout or on completely seperate days. So thats my question should joint mobility drills and stretching be done during the warm up or after or seperate days.

Thanks.

[Blairbob]

Before or after. I like bridge wall walks and cuban presses in my WU and pike stretch after. If you are super tight, static stretching in the warmup may be necessary. Many gym clubs do static stretching after the WU but I came across an elite women's coach who does not last weekend.

[Neal Winkler]

Before or after. I like bridge wall walks and cuban presses in my WU and pike stretch after. If you are super tight, static stretching in the warmup may be necessary. Many gym clubs do static stretching after the WU but I came across an elite women's coach who does not last weekend.

The current state of the science indicates that static stretching is ok in the warm-up so long as it's proceeded by dynamic warm-up exercises.

[Blairbob]

He made an interesting point that once you start sitting or laying down to do the static stretches you are effectively negating the whole purpose of WU. He likes to WU and get to his first event or basics. He said something about that static stretching pushes the blood out of the tissue. Not sure.

[Joshua Naterman]

The biggest issue is that static stretches longer than 10 seconds appear to start inhibiting the stretch reflex, which is essential to performing your best. So static stretches are OK once you're warmed up, if you want to do some, but they should be short and have something active in-between the stretches.

I can't really post my entire preferred warm up because parts of it are straight out of the seminars, but the sprints and whatnot, which are far better than just jogging, are just to give the body a wake up call and have it warm and ready for the rest of the warm up. After that, you should be doing some VERY LIGHT joint prep for everything you're going to be working, and because gymnastics is upper body dominant you should be doing a quick routine for your scapulae and your wrists/forearms every warm up.

It's a good idea to have harder joint prep once a week, not on a regular training day. Saturday seems to be a good day for this. Remember that this is not quite the same as strength training, we are not trying to push it too hard here. High reps is the name of the game when it comes to most aspects of joint prep, as tendons respond best to lower levels of stress and longer duration of stress. This is mostly because of the slow healing rate of tendons. Higher levels of stress will do too much damage for the tendons to completely heal in-between sessions.

Longer stretches should be reserved for after the workout UNLESS you are doing a long pike stretch AND not working the hips or legs at all during the workout. At that point, I don't know of any reason why you wouldn't be ok doing a long pike stretch. That doesn't happen terribly often.

Typically, dynamic stretching is best for warm ups, though it is often more effective AFTER short static stretches. You start firing the stretch reflex and getting the body ready for the high force it must produce to change directions quickly in the ranges of motion that will be worked out in the current session.

[Ortprod]

I like to throw romanian deadlifts into my class's warmup for hamstring flexibility issues. If you do this, try not to change the straightness of your back (no need to arch, just stay straight and only pike at the hip). You don't need much weight (less than 100lb) for this to be an effective dynamic warmup for "stretching" the hamstrings. I follow this with double and single leg hip raises to get the glutes even more warmed up. X band walks are usually to follow and that is usually enough but if more is necessary then we move onto squatting with an iso hold followed by a jump out of the bottom, jumping as fast as possible. Keep in mind that this is just what I do in general and I would not do these things if someone had a specific ailment such as knee or ankle issues.

Myself and my clients always go through a stretch band warmup for shoulder mobility prior to training. I prefer doing external rotation with light weights (2lb plates or less) lying face down. Even with just doing 10 reps, I have seen their range of motion improve incredibly over time (I have the most mobile clients in the gym B)). Wrist pushups (many variations), and all kinds of spinal articulation are also included such as cross twisting, lateral reaches, windmills, pump stretching and bridging.

When one becomes familiar with these, they can blast through this in less than 20 minutes.

Does this help?

[Joshua Naterman]

Everyone loves the X band walks lol! They are good, it is just funny to me for some reason. Great move. I like the stiff leg deadlifts in the warm ups, that's good too! Thank you for sharing so much of the warm up you use!