Warm-Ups
Most coaches have different opinions on most topics related to S&C, but there are very few things that they have such varying opinions on as the different aspects of warm-ups, flexibility and mobility. From what’s important to how it is implemented, there is a wide array of war-up routines for sports and training. You are only limited by your imagination, and common sense.
In Part 1 of a 3-part series, we will be discussing warm-ups.
If you have been around this game for a while you’ve heard this referred to by a wide variety of names. Cal (short for calisthenics), Team Stretch, Flow, Training Prep, Practice Prep and Dynamic Warm-Ups are just a few of the terms you hear tossed around about what is essentially a process for getting ready to start training or practice. And before anyone gets their feelings hurt, of course I realize that mobility is not just about warming up, and I know that warming up is more than just stretching to get ready for practice. And yeah, everyone does it differently because everyone places a different level of importance on the how, what and why of it all.
So, what is everyone arguing about?
To say that there are 2 schools of thought on the warm-up discussion is an oversimplification, but if it wasn’t, the two schools would be the “You don’t need it” or the “You need a lot more than you think you do” schools of thought. In reality, those two ideas are at the opposite ends of the very long spectrum of opinions on how you should use this in every-day situations.
Warm-ups are the general movements that get the body ready for activity. These will help to increase the body’s core temperature; they may also make you break a little sweat or “get your body going.” This is always a good idea, as it is not advised to go into practice or a game without having done something to prepare the body. However, many weightlifters will tell you that your warm-up sets for your particular exercise you are starting your lift with should accomplish this for you without wasting any time on unnecessary warm-ups. I believe that both of these views can be true, with context, and we must decide what it is we are getting ready for and plan accordingly. Starting basketball practice is different than starting a weight training session.
This is going to be written around a football background, but the ideas carry over to other sports as well. When I was in elementary and early in my high school days, we would line up for Cal. This was very much like what you see in old army movies; groups of us lined up doing jumping jacks, windmills and way-backs on a 1-2-3-# cadence, mostly ballistic stretching and some static stuff tossed in. Then later in high school, organized now at football practice we did a similar version of this but it was still mostly static stretching with a small touch of the ballistic stretching.
Once I moved to college, everything was most advanced, organized and purposeful. Ballistic stretching was now being raked over the coal as being evil, so we did not do that. We would do a little dynamic movement followed by static stretching, Active Isolation stretching and PNF stretching. Though other than jumping rope, we did not do a lot of warm-ups prior to our lifting sessions until my last two years.
When I got into coaching, I stuck to what I knew, which was what I did in college and that worked well for a long time. But as time moves on and we see and learn more, and work for and with different people, you evolve. I had one boss who had lengths of rope that we would jump rope with and then lay down and use it for static and AI stretching. After a few more years, static stretching was falling out of favor, being replaced with dynamic warm-ups with full on sprint mechanics involved with it. Add to that different types of bands and cords and it can get confusing and overwhelming.
One of the issues that causes differences of opinions is that none of these things is ever just one thing. They all overlap. Skipping rope is not just skipping rope. It is often used as a warm-up exercise, it is a low-level plyometric exercise, it is a stiffness exercise that is found in sprint mechanics. There are so many options, how do you choose? What do you leave in? What do you take out?
Personally, I do not like warming up. I should do it and I need to do it more and I feel better when I do, but I don’t like to. From a weightlifting point of view, I need more warm-up than I used to when I was younger. I used to begin a squat workout by doing about a quarter trunk twist each way and saying “OK, let’s go” and stepping under 225 for my first set, 315 for the next, 405 on the next and then get on with my working sets. Now my squat workout takes a lot longer than it used to, and though I can still lift almost as heavy as I once did, it takes me a little longer to get there.
When I go play racquetball, which is a love of mine, I don’t like to waste time warming up and I use the first game to get that way. Now I sometimes lose that first game because of that, and if I take a few minutes to warm-up before the first game I generally play better. I also have a much better chance of winning that game than if I do not warm up.
However, I also know people that take 45 minutes to warm-up for whatever they’re about to do, and I wholeheartedly disagree. Unless you are a sprinter, I see no reason for this to be necessary. Outside of maybe working on some metabolic type stuff in the early offseason as a regeneration workout, this seems excessive. I’ve heard people say, “my warm-ups are longer/harder than your workout”, well good on you, but I feel sorry for you if that’s the case.
I have played or worked for 8 different head football coaches in my career and each one wanted the ‘team stretch’ done differently. They didn’t have a say so on what was being done of course, but they gave input on when, where and how it would be handled. My first year in the NFL we did not stretch before practice or games, the players were responsible for it themselves. That was new to me but it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, the guys needed to be professional and get themselves ready to go. We did the same thing on game day.
Another coach gave us 15-20 minutes every day, but then you start feeling like you have to fill the time or risk losing it, so you make up stuff to do that is not really necessary. On game day with this coach, the players would go through drills with their coaches, only to come over to us to do a 15-minute dynamic warm-up after they were already warm. Players hated it.
I have seen teams warm up by position, which I am not opposed to, it allows you to focus on some things that are more specific of one group, based on the needs of their position. Some sports might not require something to specific. Soccer players all kind of do the same thing, same with basketball and baseball; while there are tons of nuances of course, much of the movement demands are similar so they can have a more universal warm-up routine.
Personally, I like a mix of things. I start with what I call a standing prep (neck circles, arm swings, trunk twists, etc.) maybe some band work or hip mobility exercises. This would be followed by movement exercises (shuffles, jogs, skips) done first to get blood flowing and body temperature increasing, while mixing in some dynamic walking exercises (ankling, quad stretch, walking piriformis) and after I feel the athletes are moving around good, get into some ground work (World’s Greatest, catchers stance, ½ kneeling, pigeon pose, etc.). After those things, we can get up and start some more aggressive movement exercises (shuffle to sprint, back-peddle to sprint, COD, CNS primers, build-ups, etc.).
One of my favorite warm-ups was one I came up with that outlined movement categories and had exercise filled in. we would do something to start moving, something backwards, a walking exercise, a skip, a static stretch, a lunge, a twist, etc. The warm-up was different every day but always had the same categories of movement in them. This can be found in the chart below.
How warm do you need to be? It’s like jumping in a swimming pool, you don’t get more wet by jumping in a second time. Once you’re warm, how much warmer do you need to be? What is the minimum dosage of warmness that one needs to carry out the necessary tasks of the day? The urge is to try and make your warm-up all things to all people, but it just isn’t realistic.
What are the common denominators of the sport from a movement perspective? What are they asked to do and how can you get the thlete prepared to go do that in training, practice or games?
My recommendation: Make a list of the stuff you don’t want to do, and don’t do those. Make a list of the stuff you feel you have to do and do those. Then have another list of stuff you could do and choose the best ones from that list.