Warm-ups & Cool-Downs
If there’s one thing I know about athletes it's that they hate warm-ups. At least in my experience I am often in a bargaining battle with my athletes to either do a ground based warm-up or to play games instead. At times, that battle can go in the athlete’s favor, but it all depends on what needs to be done. Is it bad to do a ground based warm-up or play a game instead of a longer dynamic warm-up? No.
Often I use the ground for stretches, mobility, and activation amongst a dynamic with my warm-ups. I use games every once in a while to entertain the athlete while simultaneously increasing their heart rate, blood flow, oxygen intake and building up athletic intensity. The part they deem as “hard” or “boring” is a classic dynamic warm-up or anything besides a game that increases their heart rate.
This week on instagram, The Athlete Degree covered some basic benefits of warming-up and cooling-down, when and why to use parts of a warm-up, and discussed the specifics of each phase of a warm-up. Instead of repeating what you already saw and to keep it short I am going to hop into providing a few examples of warm-ups that you can use and when or why I would use them.
Ground-based Mobility, Activation & Plyometrics
Half-kneeling Hip Flexor Rocks x 5-10ea
Half-kneeling Hamstring Hinges x 5-10ea
Half-kneeling Adductor Rocks x 5-10ea
Side Lying T-Spine Rotations x 5-10ea
90/90 Hip Rotations x 5ea
Alternating Hip Internal Rotations x 5ea
90/90 Heel Tap and Replace x 5ea
High External Shoulder Rotations (on ground or wall) x 10
Low External Shoulder Rotations (on ground or wall) x 10
Prone Shoulder Overhead Reaches x 10
Scap Push-ups x 10
Plank Shoulder Taps x 20
Single Leg Glute Bridges x 10ea
Quadruped Single Leg Kick Back Isometric x :20ea
Quadruped Single Leg Kick Back + Hip Circles x 5-10ea
Bear Crawl Forward & Backward x 10 steps each
Push-up to Pick Ankle Touches x 10
Bird Dog x 10ea
Dead Bug x 10ea
Double Leg Pogo Hops x 10ea (up and down, side to side, forward and backward)
Single Leg Pogo Hops x 5ea (up and down, side to side, forward and backward)
Squat Jumps x 5-10
I find this to have most of what a warm-up needs, but it lacks aerobic work that would increase an athlete’s heart rate. I would use this warm-up if our session started with weight lifting, lower intensity plyometrics, Olympic weight lifting (which often includes its own warm-up), or a recovery session. This is also very similar to what I would do if I were warming-up a team for a game, was limited with space, or they had already been exposed to an increased heart rate.
If you were going into a game, speed session or a run this may not be a complete warm-up for you. What I would add to make this feel more complete would be a bike, jog or any fast dynamic exercises to increase your heart rate; for example, skipping, shuffling, hopping, or building into sprint drills.
Dynamic Warm-up
Walking on Toes x 10-15yd (forward, backward, lateral)
Walking on Heels x 10-15yd (forward, backward, lateral)
Pogo Hopping x 10-15yd (forward, backward, lateral)
Single Leg Hopping x 10-15yd (forward, backward, lateral
Knee Hugs x 10-15yd
Quad Pulls x 10-15yd
Heel Scoops x 10-15yd
Figure-4 x 10-15yd
Alternating Side Lunge x 10-15yd
Straight Leg Kicks x 10-15yd
Knee Drive to Single Leg Romanian Deadlifts (RDL) x 10-15yd
World’s Greatest Stretch x 10-15yd
Inch Worms x 10-15yd
High Knees x 10-15yd
Skips Forward & Backward 10-15yd
Shuffles with Arm Swings 10-15yd
Carioca x 10-15yd
A-Skips x 10-15yd
Lateral Skips x 10-15yd
Bounding x 10-15yd
Build-up Sprints 3 x 10-15yd (increase speed each rep until 90%+)
This is a classic dynamic warm-up that can be very versatile. I would use this to warm-up my athletes on a daily basis, whether it’s a strength and conditioning session, a practice or even pregame. I may add to this depending on the occasion or what we have in our session, but it is a great framework to start from. In this warm-up, we are achieving our goal by mobilizing and activating through our stretches and increasing our heart rate and blood flow to active muscles through our fast dynamic exercises. I would add more specific activation exercises depending on my athletes and session ahead, but this warm-up can prepare an athlete physiologically without fatiguing them.
Sprint Warm-up (start with the dynamic)
A-Skips x 15-20yd
Lateral Skips x 15-20yd
Straight Leg Run Dribbles x 15-20yd
Straight Leg Run Bounds x 15-20yd
Bounding x 15-20yd
Backward Bounding x 15-20yd
Skips for Height x 15-20yd
Build-up Sprint x 20yd (build in speed each 5yd)
3-Shuffle to Sprint x 5-10yd
2-Skips to Sprint x 5-10yd
Fall to Sprint x 5-10yd
Single Leg Fall to Sprint x 5-10yd
Here’s the thing, I am a performance coach, I am not a sprint coach or track coach. Could this be a better warm-up if it were written by a sprint or track coach? Absolutely yes. Would this work for the general public or non-track athlete? Yes.
Initially, I would start with the dynamic warm-up above, then add this to the end. I would also pay attention to how many sprint starts I use because I wouldn’t want to fatigue their nervous system and posterior chain prior to our session. If you are warming-up for a game, practice, or speed workout I would use something like this. Pick and choose what works for you and the outcome of your session.
Shoulder Activation
Banded As, Ts, Ys x 10ea
Banded High External Rotations x 10
Banded Low External and Internal Rotations x 10ea
Banded Scap Pulls x 10
Banded Punches x 10
Banded High Rows x 10
Scap Push-ups x 10
Downward Dog Ankle Touches x 10
Arm Circles x 10ea (forward, backward)
Arm Swings x 10ea (hugs, up and down)
Sleeper Stretch x 5ea with 3s hold
This routine, or something similar, is what I would do with my athletes who put a lot of volume on their upper body (overhead athletes); this could be softball players, baseball players, swimmers, tennis players, volleyball players, etc. Proper activation of our rotator cuffs, scapular muscles, deltoids, pectorals, triceps, biceps, rhomboids and trapezius muscles are crucial for preparing the body to produce extremely high forces across all ranges of motion of the shoulder. If we overexert without proper activation/warm-up we can create damage overtime leading to more severe injuries. This would also be a great series to go through as ‘prehab’ for individuals with lingering shoulder pain, history of injury, or anyone wanting to do preventative shoulder care. Do your shoulder exercises!!
Hip & Glute Activation
Quadruped Straight Leg Kick Back Iso x :20ea
Quadruped Straight Leg Kick Back to Hip Circle x 10ea
Quadruped Fire Hydrant Iso x :20ea
Single Leg Glute Bridge Iso x 10ea
Single Leg Glute Bridges x 10ea
Lateral Plank w/ Leg Lift x :20ea
Adductor Hold x :20ea
Glute Bridges Squeeze a Ball Between Knees x 10
Dead Bugs x 5ea w/ 2s hold
Banded Lateral Walks x 10ea
Banded Forward & Backward Walks x 10ea
Banded Squats x 10
Banded Clam Shells x 10ea
This is a basic hip and glute activation series that you can use to prepare for squatting, hinging, running and/or as prehab for someone who struggles with poor glute engagement or has weak glutes and hips.
Similarly to this short paragraph on cool-downs, they don’t need to be long. The purpose of the cool-down is to lower your heart rate, cool your internal body temperature, and to allow your body and nervous system to calm back down. This can be 5 minutes of stretching, a light bike, jog or walk and/or breath work. We can benefit from a cool-down by using your already warm muscles to work on flexibility or practice bringing your heart rate back down to rest by controlling your breathing. You can also increase your cardiovascular work capacity by managing to cool back down from a conditioning workout while actively jogging or biking, only at a slower pace.
Warm-ups and cool-downs may not be the most interesting, but hopefully now you have the tools to build your own, use the ones provided, or have learned why they are necessary so you can prioritize them in the future.
