As we talked about in an earlier post, the general warm up is important for preparing the body for work and for preventing injury. This is done by increasing the heart rate, getting blood moving to working muscles and joints and raising the temperature of the muscles and joints. Normally the general warm up begins with some type of cardio-vascular exercise, mostly jogging for athletic teams.
While there isn’t anything wrong with this, there are lots of other options for a general warm up designed to increase the heart rate and get blood flowing. This post is going to outline a sample, describe its benefits, and also show you a video of what it looks like.
For this warm up you need a stopwatch or timer, jump ropes and kettlebells. The kettlebells do not have to be particularly heavy, just heavy enough to get the desired effect. This can be done in a team setting if you have enough equipment.
Athletes will pair off and start off either on the jump rope or the kettlebells. When the timer starts they begin jumping rope. There are several exercises that I like to integrate while jumping rope: regular up and down, side to side, front to back, on one foot and criss cross. At the same time, the other athlete is performing two-handed kettlebell swings.
At the end of the desired time (30 seconds in my video), give the athletes ten seconds to switch stations. Then the athletes perform the other exercise. This repeats so that each athlete does three sets at each station, this will take about 5 minutes. After this you can move into injury prevention exercises, mobility exercises, and the workout.
Jumping rope develops athleticism, foot speed, coordination, develops the lower body, and develops conditioning. The kettlebell develops the entire body but also focuses on the core and conditioning.
Below is a video of what this warm up looks like.
