As a former high school football coach I would often see the other teams in our division doing what seemed like 60-90 minutes of warm-ups before the big game. If they overdo it during the game like this, can you even imagine how much they are over training on the practice field?
What I have found is that when my clients do a shorter dynamic warm-up they can usually perform longer and harder than the ones that do extended exercises. Traditional stretches relax and fatigue muscles instead of energizing them to perform at high intensity performance/power exercises. “This is a great way to get injured” says Mike Huff, founder of the Duke Sports Performance Program, a service of “K-Lab” — the Michael Krzyzewski Human Performance Lab in the Duke Sports Medicine Center.
Woody Harrelson said, in the movie Zombieland, “You ever see a lion limber up before it takes down a gazelle?” This may not be the best reference, but it makes a good point. The US Navy says to do 5-10 minutes starting with running in place, then 4 different dynamic exercises for about 60 seconds each before starting circuit training.
What we do is a combination of military, speed and agility and MMA warm-ups that last 8-10 minutes. We use them in our boot camps, and in our one-on-one personal training.
With that said I will answer a few common questions about stretching and warming up.
You may ask, what should I do if I am a explosive performance athlete? You should basically do the dynamic one below, but add 2-4 additional short sets with a medium amount of resistance for the muscles that are needed for activity. For instance, if you are in the Military and you are doing a push up test: Add 2 more sets of 10 push up type exercises to warm up, and 2 short sets warming up the opposing muscle group as well. Again these to not need much resistance. Just isometric contractions will work to get warmed up if no equipment is available.
Others may ask what to do if they are endurance athletes? For the most part, endurance athletes should warm-up like the average Joe. What I have found is that endurance athletes are the most unbalanced group of the population. They can run, ride, or swim to Egypt but can’t touch their toes or shoulder press 15lb dumbbells. They are just asking to get hurt. If they don’t get some balance they will develop arthritis and it will prevent them from running, riding, or swimming all together. Just one good resistance training workout per week can do wonders. Stretching 2-3 times per week for their hip flexors, hamstrings and traps for this groups is also a must. Doing this one of my training clients got her personal best at the Tampa Marathon in 2009 and won! ipoker network