What is the purpose of warming-up? Does what you do for your warm-up matter (i.e. does it matter if it is specific vs. general)? A quick google search will offer you a multitude of opinions and answers to questions about warming-up. I’m sure that with the amount of time we take to warm-up at the beginning of each class here at Rogue River CrossFit you can ascertain that we find it somewhat important.
Here are a few things to think about regarding warming-up that will hopefully make it more meaningful to you.
In my experience, the more someone understands exactly what they are doing and why, the more likely they are to do it, and the more likely it is to be effective.
First, warming-up (at least as we do it) is not intended to create any permanent change in tissue length or flexibility in the short-term. Those kinds of changes require much more time with the tissue on stretch. Actually making a tissue longer takes a lot more time under tension (i.e. static stretching) than most of us realize or are willing to do. That being said, if you did have limitations in mobility that are really due to tissue shortening, almost any of the dynamic movements we perform during our warm-up could be turned into a static stretch by holding at the point of limitation.
You can certainly have a mechanical effect on your soft tissues while warming-up, such as increasing fluid flow and decreasing stiffness. However, warming-up probably has a more substantial effect on your nervous system. It is your nervous system that determines how much of your available range of motion it lets you use. The goal of warming-up is to decrease the sensitivity of the nervous system and make it more comfortable with using every bit of range of motion you have available mechanically. One of your nervous system’s primary jobs is to protect you, and it often takes some progressive “encouragement” to know that your body can, in fact, handle what you are about to do. Ever notice how (ignoring the fatigue factor for a moment) it is more comfortable and easier mechanically to get into the bottom of a squat or catch a squat snatch either at the end of the workout or after you’ve done 20-30+ reps compared to your initial attempts? Tissues don’t get longer in that short amount of time. The nervous system just “lets” you have that motion.
Exploring your mobility is a nice strategy to figure out where you’re limited. A lot of struggles that I’ve seen people face or injuries they have suffered have been related to mobility limitations that could be picked up with movements that we do during our warm-up. However, breezing through your warm-up or simply “going through the motions” will likely cause you to brush up against your limitations but never really work into them, as the body will simply take the path of least resistance. So, if you have a mobility limitation that is affecting your safety or efficiency, that is a great thing to know and realize, because how can you work to fix it if you don’t know it exists? Exploring all of your joint ranges while warming-up is a great opportunity to start to figure this out. This might mean being a little more mentally engaged and in-tune to what you are feeling and/or slowing down a bit. Particularly when doing controlled rotations through the hip and shoulder, don’t be afraid to slow down and explore your limitations without compensating for them with movement of your trunk.
When I would NOT slow down the movement is when the movement is designed to be a swing. A lot of movement that occurs during a workout relies on elastic recoil properties of tendons and fascia. Thus it is important to prepare those tissues to produce a rapid and efficient return of energy during loading-exploding cycles. This is particularly true at the major moving joints like the shoulder and hip.
The purpose of lunging/pivoting with reaching is to really begin to incorporate mobility from local segments into larger movements that integrate the entire kinetic chain. Everyone has their own individual mobility limitations, but three common regions we see limited are the thoracic spine, hips, and ankles. To mobilize the hips and ankles properly during these movements it is important to keep the foot that is not stepping fixed firmly to the ground - this will ensure that you are effectively mobilizing the ankle and hip on that side like intended. To effectively mobilize the thoracic spine during these movements it is important to keep the arms long and the elbows straight - not doing so will take away a lot from the purpose of the movement.
I try to live by a general principle that every moment is a gift, so everything you do should have a purpose, even the little things. My hope is that by understanding a little bit more about warming-up it will serve its purpose and you will get the most out of your time.
- Coach Mike