By: Derek Wellock

Hopefully, the title of this motivates you to want to read it.  You might have noticed a new approach to warm-ups for our classes at Double Edge.  We are striving to make warm-ups as valuable as the rest of the workout, and as a consumer of our product, I would like to shed some light on why you should take the warm-ups very serious.

Too often people show up late and miss the warm-up, or lollygag through it.  Both of these are very bad, and you are missing, arguably the most essential part of the workout and here is the break down as to why.  

1. Priming your body
2. Feel out possible tweaks and pains
3. Prep muscles for optimal workout performance
4. It is valuable training volume

Point one.  Priming your body.  This is important because for most of us the warm-up will be the first time we have moved our body in a physical capacity during the day.  Failure to prime your body for the work ahead will lead to a lack of performance but most importantly open you up to possible injury.

Point two. Feel out possible tweaks and pains.  In our warm-ups, we strive to make sure we are priming the muscles and movement patterns that you will see in the workout.  If during this time you are feeling some weirdness it can be a good cue to help guide the rest of your workout. Maybe today I should scale and not go as heavy or hard.  Preserve my body.

Point three.  Prep your muscles for optimal performance.   This is a must if you want to get the best results out of your precious one hour of training per day.  If you prime your muscles optimally for the WOD and strength, you will be able to perform these parts of the workout at your highest relative intensity.  Intensity is what drives results. Failure to prep=failure to perform at your best.

Point four.  The warm-up is valuable training volume.  Not giving the warm-ups the respect it deserves you are missing out on some gains.  There is a ton of progress, strength, and coordination that can come from intentionally participating in the warm-ups, all this counts as training and accumulated volume.

Over the last year, I have genuinely embraced warming up the body for optimal performance and workout productivity.  So I hope you all start to get as much out of the warm-ups as I do.

(Featured Image: Jeramie Lu Photography)