The Importance of Warming Up for Optimal Performance

Understanding the Warm-Up

No one enjoys warming up. I certainly don’t. It occupies a significant space in my mind.

Recently, an online client shared her thoughts on the training app. She mentioned spending more time on warm-up drills, believing that this was where most of the benefits of her training would come from. And she is absolutely right.

When I create a training plan, I view the warm-up as the key to unlocking peak performance in the "main" exercises. These "main" exercises target the attributes we aim to improve, but everything begins with the warm-up.

The Science Behind Warming Up

Research shows that warm-ups have minimal effect on training performance, especially in weightlifting. However, in the real world, the impact is much more significant.

A warm-up serves several purposes, whether they are real or imagined, measurable or psychosomatic. In strength training, the warm-up is primarily about weight acclimation. It prepares the body to handle the working load, ensuring that the last couple of sets are challenging yet manageable. But before that, we need to awaken both the mind and body.

Action Triggers in Warming Up

In psychology, there is a concept known as an "action trigger." This is an action that, once performed, prompts the next action. We all have these habits that we execute without conscious thought.

For example, making a morning coffee often starts with putting the kettle on. In my experience, warming up acts as an action trigger. Observing individuals at WG-Fit, whether they arrive early for a Bootcamp session or rush in for lunchtime workouts, I notice how grabbing a skipping rope and starting to warm up transforms their mental state.

Within a minute or two, their demeanor changes. The glassiness in their eyes fades, and they begin to engage. They seamlessly transition into the next movement, and by the time they set up weights for the main exercises, they are entirely different—ready for action.

Preparing for the Main Exercises

Going back in time, packing a training bag the night before can also serve as an action trigger. Once packed and left by the door, it signifies that you know what you’re doing, making it easier to follow through.

Now, let’s discuss warm-up content. I often program a pulse raiser—something simple to kickstart the body, pump blood, and raise temperature. If it also incorporates a coordination element, it engages the brain further.

After that, we move into specific movements, which are carefully selected. This is where I invest most of my thought.

Tailoring Warm-Ups to Individual Needs

Lifting involves fundamental movements: Push, Pull, Hinge, and Squat. However, individuals may have unique needs due to injuries or discomfort. A sore knee, a bad back, or a dodgy shoulder might require specific attention to ensure effective pushing, pulling, hinging, and squatting.

Incorporating rehabilitation exercises into the warm-up can save time during the main training session. The 100 Rep Warm Ups represent this thought process. You can see them here: 100 Rep Warm Ups.

For clients focused on injury management, as well as athletes, warm-ups are tailored to meet their specific needs based on assessments.

Engaging with the Warm-Up

When I see people going through warm-ups half-heartedly, treating them as mere box-ticking exercises, I realize they aren’t engaging with the process. There may be a lack of understanding about the purpose of the movements, or the exercises may be too generic to hold any value.

This is why many people dislike warming up. They are often impatient to get to the "fun" stuff!

However, if you discover a warm-up that gets you breathing and sweating, alleviates pain, and leaves you feeling taller and lighter, you’ve struck gold. Over time, if you notice injuries diminishing and mobility improving, you are making progress, and your subsequent training will benefit as a result.

The Right Duration for Warming Up

Take the time to warm up properly. The 100 Rep Warm Ups typically last between 8 to 15 minutes, which should be sufficient. If you find yourself warming up for more than 20 minutes, it’s worth questioning the effectiveness of your routine. Either you’re not planning to train seriously, or you might be doing the wrong warm-up.

If you suspect the latter, revisit the YouTube link provided or feel free to reach out to me for a discussion.

Final Thoughts

Before you go, I recently got myself listed on TrustPilot to enhance my marketing efforts. I would greatly appreciate your help in getting started.

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Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from you!

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Regards

Dave Hedges

www.DaveHedges.net

Making progress without chasing numbers

I was asked about making progress without chasing numbers.

It was part of a multi question email from a reader that I have split into its parts as each question deserves its own answer.

So can you make progress, and can you track progress without chasing numbers?

This is a debate that has gone on for as long as there has been internet forums, probably longer.

And yes, if you train well, over time there should be an increase in the numbers, be that weight lifted, no of reps, no of sets and so on.

But there’s another marker, one that is more subjective and therefore less trusted by many coaches, and that is RPE

RPE stands for Rate of Perceived Exertion.

And while there are several interpretations of this, some numbers based and tied to percentages, we can also simply call it auto regulation.

Auto regulation is minding yourself. It’s making a judgement there and then about how hard to push.

It allows for those days when you’re not feeling it and need to back off, and those days when you’re on fire and want to lift the gym!

We’ve all felt it, days you come in dreading a session because the plan says X but you feel like Y.

Maybe it’s stress, maybe it’s the start of a flu bug, maybe it’s, well whatever.

So auto regulation is the term to describe how we manage ourselves without needing a coach telling us what or how to think.

In WG-Fit we have quite an old school kettlebell set up with 4kg intervals between the weights.

4kg is a big jump, which is something I have always enjoyed about kettlebells.

Dan John, the Strength and Conditioning godfather, talks about this as a good thing.

He says it means you have to stay at a given load long enough to master it before jumping up.

Something Paul McIlroy calls “Comfort Zone Expansion” or lifting easy long enough that you knock down old PR’s without noticing.

It even falls into the old running tip I got from Chef Mike Ward circa 1998/9 and was beginning prep for my first half marathon, Chef Ward, a highly accomplished runner simply said “It’s about time on your feet. Forget speed and distance, just get time on your feet”

And he was right.

Here’s a story about one particular client and deliberately not chasing numbers.

He wanted his back squat to improve and was struggling.

So I decided to stop him at 60kg, a weight he could lift with great form and not too much struggle.

We did 5 sets of 5 reps with 60kg, and repeated that every week for several weeks.

Each week we focused on better form, tweaking just a little each week to dial it in.

But we didn’t change the weight, the number of sets or reps.

And each week those 5 sets of 5 moved just a little bit better.

They felt lighter.

After several weeks of this we then decided to up the weight.

We started with 60, then added load each set.

I can’t remember what we hit, but I do remember keeping him in the dark about the load on the bar, but he smashed his lifetime PR on the squat on either set 3 or 4.

There’s a lot to be said for not chasing numbers.

Train to feel better, move better, lift more easily and strength or whatever attribute you are chasing will come.

Yes, you’ll probably get there faster if you are tracking numbers, which is why when you train for an event, you will track.

But for general fitness, it’s not always needed.

If you move better, feel better and perform better, who cares what your gym numbers are?

If this email resonates with you, if you enjoy my work, then help me out.

Share this on, share online if you like and also reply with your own questions and comments.

All emails get read, all questions get added to my list for future editions.

I look forward to hearing from you

Chat soon

Dave

Which Training Path Are You On?

You are likely on one of three paths right now:

1. You're exercising with a view to staying healthy, to elongate your health span to match as closely as possible your lifespan.

2. You're exercising to get back to health, be that returning from pain and injury or from negligence.

3. You're involved in sport or some physical endeavour and you train to support that.

Each of those paths is spot on.

They all demonstrate that you have decide to take control, to get in the driving seat and make yourself as good as you can.

Back when I started Wild Geese, it was purely about that third group, training to support an activity or sport.

And while I may operate under the banner of Injury Management these days, my mission hasn't really changed.

As far as I'm concerned, an athlete trains for a sporting performance, which can be detrimental to health.

Living on the extremes is never healthy.

And me coming from martial arts and extreme sports, and having trained many people in those fields to reach levels far beyond my meagre talents, I can tell you how detrimental to your health those events can be with the high potential for injury!

And then in the off season, be bring them back to health, hopefully to a greater level of health, which translates to better performance when the season rolls in again.

The only difference then between an athlete and someone on a health span journey are those periods of competition.

That's not to say the health span crew shouldn't compete, why not enter a half marathon, a Hyrox event, a kettlebell sport event.

Why not go with your hiking buddies up the mountains?

Using fitness training that takes in Strength, Mobility and Endurance is what keeps you healthy and able to do things.

Acute events are the challenge, the test of your abilities, they provide the evidence that the training is working.

If you are an athlete and you're doing better, then the training is working. If worse, it isn't.

If you're a healthspan person, can you do things that your peer group can't, are you on their speed dial for house moves?

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Regards

Dave Hedges

www.DaveHedges.net