Warm ups consist of two parts, a general warm up and a specific warm up. The general warm up is about gradually raising heart rate and getting blood flowing through the body. In a previous article we discussed this and in another post we had an example of a general warm up that can be done in a strength and conditioning setting that does not involve cardiovascular exercises.
Once the general warm up is done, it’s time to prepare the athlete for the workout. This is the specific warm up. This is where we address the muscles, joints, and movement patterns that will be trained in the actual strength and conditioning session. It’s also a great place if we need injury prevention exercises.
In today’s post, we’re going to present a sample specific warm up that is geared towards a lower body focused exercise. In this training session our first exercise will be the squat, so we’ll be focusing on preparing for that.
We’ll divide this warm up into three parts: joints, injury prevention, and movement preparation.
Joints:
In terms of joints we’ll be very focused on the hip and lower back. To do this we’ll begin with four exercises:
- Leg swings: have the athlete stand up, hold something with their left hand (could be a squat rack, could be the wall, just something that won’t move). Standing tall, keep the right leg straight and swing it forwards and backwards from the hip. Turn around and switch legs.
- Leg swings, side to side: Have the athlete face the thing that they are holding onto for support. Place the right leg slightly in front of the body. Swing it side to side for the desired number of repetitions and then switch legs.
- Eagles: Have the athlete lie on the ground on their back. Their arms should be spread at shoulder height on the ground. Keeping their shoulders on the ground, they will keep their right leg straight and bring it up across their body and attempt to touch their left hand with their right foot. Perform a rep with the left leg. Keep alternating until the desired number of reps have been performed.
- Stomach eagles: Have the athlete lie on the ground on their stomach. Their arms should be spread at shoulder height on the ground. Keeping their shoulders on the ground, have the athlete attempt to bring their right leg up and behind their body attempting to touch their left hand. Switch sides. Continue alternating until the desired number of reps have been performed.
Injury prevention:
This is a good place to work on how to land during plyometrics. I like to have athletes perform a little drill where they begin by standing up with their feet hip width apart. From this position they will explosively drop into a quarter squat, with the focus being landing with their hips pushed back and their weight on the middle of their foot. Have them do this drill for ten repetitions.
Movement preparation:
This is a great place to incorporate some overhead squats to finish warming up the lower body. This does not have to be done with any weight, it could be done by holding bands overhead, or if you want you can incorporate the bar and weights. This does a great job of helping to develop hip, knee, and ankle mobility while training the core.
After this we begin squats, first with the bar and then with the weights gradually increasing.
So below is a suggestion for this warm up:
General Warm Up: Kettlebell and jump rope circuit, 5 minutes
Specific Warm Up:
- Leg swings 10x
- Leg swings side to side 10x each leg
- Eagles 10x each leg
- Stomach eagles 10x each leg
- Landings 10x
- Overhead squats 3×6
- Back squats