3 Warmup Templates for Optimizing Performance

As the temperatures (at least here in Chicago) are dipping consistently below freezing every night, it’s time to start putting a little more thought into your warmups than during the hot and sweaty summer months. No longer can you get away with 30 seconds of jumping rope, a couple of high knees, and be off to the races – not unless you would like to help contribute to your chiropractor or orthopedist’s next BMW purchase.

However, as usual, we understand that time is at a premium, and that some of the more drawn-out warmups out there may not be feasible, or even necessary.

What follows are three different warmup templates based on the most common training goals that we work with – fat loss, muscle gain, and strength.

Fat Loss

There are a few things we know about most effective fat loss programs – rest periods tend to be limited, the movements tend to be big, compound lifts that work a lot of muscles at once, and setting personal records on weight lifted is not a primary aim (or at least, it shouldn’t be).

With that in mind, a good warmup should prepare you for an elevated heart rate and warm up all of the major muscle groups and joints, since many fat loss programs use full body workouts each day (or at the very least, varying combinations of upper and lower body exercises).  We’re going to want to include the following three components:

• two dynamic stretching movements to raise the heart rate (one for the shoulder girdle and one for the hips)
• some soft tissue work on chronically tight or stiff muscle groups
• one or two bodyweight strength exercises to prepare the joints and muscles for training

Here’s an example:

Dynamic Stretching

A1.  Shoulder dislocates with PVC pipe or a band – 10-12 reps

A2. Leg swings, forward/back and side-to-side – 10-12 reps each way

Soft Tissue

B1. Piriformis with lacrosse ball – 30 seconds each side

B2. IT band with foam roller – 30 seconds each side

B3. Upper pecs with lacrosse ball – 30 seconds each side

Strength Warmup

C1. Bodyweight squat – 20 reps, 2010 tempo (2 seconds down, no pause, one second up, no pause)

C2. Medicine ball slam – 10 reps, X0X0 tempo (fast movements)

Estimated completion time – 8 minutes

Muscle Gain

Training for muscle gain, also called hypertrophy training, typically requires more of a focus on training individual muscle groups with more sets per workout, usually resulting in splitting the body up over multiple workouts.  Therefore, the warmups put more emphasis on preparing individual muscles for a higher workload.

An example for a chest & back workout:

Dynamic Stretching

A1.  Shoulder dislocates with PVC pipe or a band – 10-12 reps

A2. Medicine ball slam – 15-20 reps

Soft Tissue

B1. Lats/upper back with foam roller – 30 seconds each side

B2. Rotator cuff with lacrosse ball – 30 seconds each side

B3. Upper pecs with lacrosse ball – 30 seconds each side

Strength Warmup

C1. Shoulder width pushup or flat dumbbell press – 2 sets of 10 with 50% of max weight, 4010 tempo

C2. Dumbbell pullover – 20 sets of 10 with 50% of max weight, 3210 tempo

Estimated completion time – 12 minutes

Strength

Strength workouts typically involve fewer reps per set, with longer rest intervals and a higher percentage of intensity than other types of training.  The dynamic components and soft tissue work are similar to the other two templates, but the strength warmup works a little differently.  Also, rather than being split into bodyparts, workouts are usually grouped based on movements, with some variation of either the three power lifts (bench press, squat, or deadlift) or a variation of an Olympic lift (clean & jerk, snatch) as the primary focus for the session.

Along with dynamic and soft tissue movements, the strength warmup typically involves multiple low-rep sets of the first one or two movements being trained that session.  For example, on a day devoted to the bench press, the warmup might look like this:

Dynamic Stretching

A1.  Shoulder dislocates with PVC pipe or a band – 10-12 reps

A2. Medicine ball slam – 15-20 reps

Soft Tissue

B1. Lats/upper back with foam roller – 30 seconds each side

B2. Rotator cuff with lacrosse ball – 30 seconds each side

B3. Upper pecs with lacrosse ball – 30 seconds each side

Strength Warmup

C1. Close-grip barbell bench press (lifter’s current max is 250lbs) – 95×5, 115×3, 135×3, 155×1, 4010 tempo

C2. Close-grip weighted chinup (lifter’s current max is 100lbs) – bodyweight x5, 25×3, 40×3, 50×1, 4010 tempo

Estimated completion time – 15 minutes