STOP THE ENDLESS FOAM ROLLING & CARDIO TO WARM-UP!
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By Andy Van Grinsven
It’s a case of “same old, same old” for most people when it comes to warm-ups: foam rolling or riding a stationary bike. A way that was faster, more specic to your needs as a lifter, and more fun? What follows is a new warm-up that incorporates explosive power, mobility drills, and stability drills. And you can get it done quickly, giving you more time to hit the stu that matters most.
Admit it. You’re not always pumped to be in the gym. Sometimes you’re dragging your feet getting in the door. While your training session needs the nuts and bolts to get you to your goal, your warm-up doesn’t have to be the same ol’ mind-numbing routine. Keep things fun and interesting, even playful.
. And if you’re having more fun with your warm-ups and your program, you’ll stick it out.
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roller to try and undo all the “knots” and “scar tissue” to promote blood ow and improve
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tissue quality.
May 25th, 2016
For the longest time I swore by the foam roller, both as a coach and and lifter. Every session started the same way: lie down on the oor and roll around on a dense ball or
Before long,
. This
left less time to do actual hard work. While the foam roller has its place, its utility has been abused over the years. Many lifters hop on the treadmill or stationary bike for ve minutes to “get blood owing.” No real harm can come from this, but what are the benets?
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. In other words, It doesn’t really help help you lift heavy shit o the oor. Let’s face the real issue. Aside from being less than optimal, these traditional warm-ups are
June 27th, 2016
uninspiring and boring. Why Physical Therapists Should Program Like Strength Coaches
A great warm-up res you up both psychologically and physiologically. -Andy Van Grinsven
June 20th, 2016
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It all started with me borrowing ideas and methods from dierent camps and piecing them together. I began focussing on what For a lifting session to be great, you need a few things from your warm-up:
.
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so that you can easily get into the required positions for our lifts. so that you can transmit force through our body without risk of injury or
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energy leaks. so you can move weights faster and more powerfully, leading to better gains. so you can come back and do it again another day. How can you address these needs in the shortest time possible?
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1)
x 10
2)
x 5
3) 4a) 4b) 4c)
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x 20 x 5/side x 5/side x 5/side
Run the circuit three times, completing the swings, squats, and pull-aparts each round. In round 1, do a Spiderman In-step x 5/side. In round two, complete T-spine rotation x 5/side. In the last round, complete a Cossack Squat x 5/side.
1. Completed 30 explosive hip extensions 2. Completed 15 goblet squats 3. Activated core muscles ( transverse abdominis, rectus abdominus, internal/external obliques, and erector spinae )
4. Improved thoracic, hip, and ankle mobility [Tweet “If it’s important, do it every day. -Andy Van
” ]
This warm-up not only provides the benets outlined above, but also gives us additional opportunity to work on our technique without compromising our workouts. Let’s take a further look at the details:
Kettlebell swing Home
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1. Set the ‘bell out in front of your feet about arms length 2. Get tension in your lats by lightly pulling the ‘bell towards you 3. “Hike” the ‘bell as if you’re a long snapper 4. As you feel the ‘bell stretch your hips and glutes, explosively thrust your hips forward thrusting the bell about eye-level 5. Pull the ‘bell back down, playing “chicken” with your crotch, reload the hips and explosively thrust again The program starts with the kettlebell swing for several reasons.The rst is that it represents a low-level explosive lift, which helps prime muscles to contract faster and more forcefully later in our workout. Second, . A powerful hip hinge will
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translate into improved performance for both the deadlift and athletic qualities like sprinting, cutting, and jumping. Home
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KB Goblet Squat
1. Grab the ‘bell by the horns and set your feet in your squat stance 2. Brace your abs and sit between the legs, with your elbows sliding in between your knees 3. Keep your upper back erect and core tight 4. Squeeze your glutes and drive out of the hole before doing it again The KB Squat serves several purposes as well. It gives you rep practice to perfect your technique, while improving both trunk stability (due to the position of the ‘bell) and hip/ankle/thoracic spine mobility. . A handful of goblet squats is plenty of stimulus to activate trunk muscles.
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This eectively takes the foot o the brakes , if you will, and allows you to sit deeper into your squat with greater ease, improving your performance and reducing your risk of injury. Home
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Band Pullaparts
1. Grab a band and hold it out in front of your with either an overhand or underhand grip 2. Keeping arms straight, pull the band apart like you’re trying to tear it 3. When the band touches your chest, return to start slowly and under control , build strength and mass in our posterior delt and upper back, and keeps our shoulders movin’ and groovin’ well for the long-haul.
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1. Start in push-up position 2. Bring one foot up and plant it just to the outside of your hand 3. Rotate towards the front leg and make a “T” with your body 4. Replace the leg and continue with the other side , providing not only a hamstring stretch for the front leg, but a hip exor stretch for the trailing leg. With the added rotation, you can further improve thoracic mobility and upper back posture.
T Spine Windmill
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1. Pin a medicine ball or foam roller (not totally useless!) under your lower leg 2. Clasp hands together in front of you 3. “Reach” with the top hand before rotating up and over, like a windmill, to the other side of your body 4. “Close your book” and perform the drill again
. While there are many alternatives, this one works best in my experience: If the client or athlete tries to cheat the drill, the leg pinning the foam roller pops up. So cueing is much easier. Additionally, the athlete can see improvement in this drill over time as he or she will be able to keep their ngertips on the oor throughout the rotation.
Cossack Squat
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1. Take a wide stance 2. Slide your hips towards one side of your body, then push the hips back 3. Sit back as far and as deep as you can 4. With the trailing leg, pull the toe up towards the ceiling 5. Push through the working leg back to start and go again on the other side The cossack squat is a great drill because it not only provides hip mobility, but also gets us out of the sagittal plane that we live in.
This one is for coaches. Why do the good ones tend to use reps in multiples of ve?
When you start adding 6’s, 8’s, and 10’s, confusion sets in and you have a trainee who’s asking questions and not working. How many sets and reps of this warm-up are up to you.
. Remember
that this is a warm-up. Breathless and sweaty is ne, but there is still a workout to be done. Assign reps sparingly.
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Let’s recap: for our lifts to be stellar, we need a better and more comprehensive warm-up. Home
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We also need to spend as little time as necessary in order to get into the meat ‘n potatoes of our lifting session. The above program is a great place to start. The KB swings and squats address explosive hip extension, squat depth, core strength, and hip mobility in two drills. The band pull-aparts serves as extra upper back pulling volume, while providing the obvious benets of increased shoulder strength and improved posture through posterior shoulder muscle activation. The three mobility drills are some of my favorites and good catch-all drills. However there are no hard and fast rules here.
A nal note. Foam rolling or bike riding are far from useless in warm ups.This isn’t an either/or situation. Do like we all do in this industry:
.
is a Nashville-based Personal Trainer and Strength Coach with a Master’s degree in Exercise Physiology and CSCS through the NSCA. He shows average Janes and Joes how to leverage bars, kettlebells, and bodyweight to improve movement quality, strength, and body composition. His training philosophy is to keep things simple, progressive, and fun. When he’s not training clients, he’s nose-deep in a book or walking his beloved dog, Jane. He loves BBQ and deadlifts, but only luke-warm to Nashville’s country music scene.
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For more from Andy visit his website:
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By Andy Van Grinsven | November 9th, 2016 | Performance, Strength Training, Workouts | 3 Comments
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November 10, 2016 at 2:10 pm - Reply
This looks great; am looking forward to trying it. Would you add to or adjust these for someone focussed on Olympic lifting? Many thanks.
November 10, 2016 at 8:26 pm - Reply
Hey Anthony! Thanks for reading. The exercises and drills I picked are more generic, meaning that they t most of the clients that I work with, which is general population folks. I don’t employ Olympic lifting personally, but I’m sure you could use a blend of both Olympic lifts, mobility drills, and kettlebell drills into your warmup. Unless you’re a purist in your approach to tness, I say use a bit of everything to spice things up and keep things fresh every now and then. It can’t hurt so long as you know what you’re doing. Hope that helps
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November 14, 2016 at 5:05 pm - Reply
Awesome stu Andy. The warm-up hits all major muscle groups, systems, and you Home gave excellent rationale Articles for each. Thanks for the post. About Us Fitness Programs
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