Importance and Implementation of a Warm Up.

A warm up is a set of systematic preparatory exercises and movements done before a workout or competition in order to get the body into a position to perform optimally.

A warm up is done to improve performance and to reduce the incidence of injury. When looking at any sport, you want to be able to stay in the sport as long as possible without injury and you want to perform at your best. A warm up also has a psychological effect where it helps you mentally to get ready for a workout or competition.

It is important to take note here that like any other exercise, the overall problem which is  generally seen with warm ups is that it is mostly not done as intense as it should be and as a result when athletes do take part in warm ups, they tend to have wrong ineffective methods or techniques.

One of these methods is static stretching:

Static stretching is stretching a muscle to its furthest point and maintaining/holding that position. Research suggests that static stretching does not allow the body to properly prepare for the activity.

Movement Pyramid:

The movement Pyramid is a way to show what areas of movement need to be efficient before you are able to optimally move in sport. The fundamentals of movement is mobility , stability, balance, Flexibility & Strength.

RAMP protocol is an easy way for you to remember what to do before any work out.

Raise: It is important to realize that this phase will look different depending on what kind of workout you are doing. Running, cycling or skipping would typically be used before a gym session. It helps increasing blood flow & heart rate, increase respiration rate, increase body temp, decrease viscous resistance in muscles

Activation:

Activation is the process of engaging specific muscle groups, that will improve overall movement

• It depends on individual athletes and sport, some athletes need to work on specific muscle activation more than others 
• In specific sports there are injuries that are common, The activation phase can be used to prevent these specific injuries. 
• For example we know that in sprinters hamstring injuries are common, including some hamstring exercises can prevent injuries 

This is called pre-habilitation, as a way to prevent injuries before they happen

Mobility:

Mobility is the ability of a joint and muscle to move freely without any restrictions. Our body’s joints are divided into stable and mobile joints. Stability is when a structure is able to maintain a specific position despite forces being placed on it. 

Performance and Potentiation:

Performance here indicates that we want to hit the same intensity as the workout, training or competition session. 

Potentiation is an exercise that directly improves performance during the competition, workout or training session and stimulates the nervous system to be ready. These exercises include jumping or sport specific technical drills. 

Here’s a short video where Leandi van Zyl, Head Sport Scientist at Reliance Foundation, breaks down the best methods to develop lower body strength and power in an effective way. (video to be embedded after this) 

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