Everybody knows that we need to perform well, but how many actually know how to put their bodies in the best situation to succeed?
In order to become a good athlete, a huge emphasis should be placed on quality of movement & performance.
To successfully prepare your body to perform with quality, you’re going to need a proper warm-up. If you don’t know how to warm-up, look no further because Coach JT has your back.
When warming up for sport, we want to start as close to competition time as possible. It would be disadvantageous to warm-up, only to cool back down before game time because you were sitting around.
The warm-up should start with basic and slow moving skills and gradually progress to faster tempo, more difficult movements.
If possible, foam rolling before the warm-up would be ideal (think about it; it’s like the warm-up before the warm-up!)
Athletes should start with foam rolling, then move to a static stretching routine (AKA in place), followed by a dynamic stretching routine (AKA moving). Once those three are done, athletes should work on movement preparation.
Here is an outline of a proper warm-up that would be perfect to use before any athletic activity or competition, to help prime quality movement & performance.
FOAM ROLL
- Back
- Glutes
- Quads
- IT Band
- Calves
STATIC STRETCHING
- Alternate Leg Pull-In
- Bent Leg Pull-In
- 90/90
- Groin Stretch
- Hip Flexor Rock
DYNAMIC STRETCHING
- Walking Quad Pull-In
- Walking Hip Flexor Rock
- Elephant Walks
- Monster Walks
- Sagittal Leg Swings
- Front Leg Swings
MOVEMENT PREP
- Marches
- A-Skips
- A-Runs
- Power Skip Height
- Bounds
- Reverse Bounds
Warm-ups are important for numerous reasons, ranging from injury prevention, to helping increase performance and quality of movement.
In order to be at the peak of your performance, you should utilize proper warm-ups before any sort of activity!
This is just only one piece to the puzzle. To see what else we do at GameChanger to help bring our athletes to the next level, click the banner below!
