THE SECRET To Having The Best Workout Of Your Life

Originally published October 11, 2015.

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” – Alexander Graham Bell

In my last blog, I gave a routine to improve mobility and help you to regain your athleticism. If you haven’t read it yet, click here. If you are anything like me in the past, a thorough warm-up consisted of 1 set of light bench press. And like me, maybe you have had some minor injuries or major ones from weightlifting. By using the warm-up I provided in that last post you can exponentially decrease your risk of injury.

Warm-ups are not only great for injury reduction, there are many great benefits that will get you great results in your next workout.

The general idea that many people know is an increase in body temperature, but it is much more in-depth than this. As your body increases it’s temperature, blood must be distributed to the working muscles to keep your body temperature maintained. When you do this prior to your workout your body will now be efficient in keeping you cool during your workout so the attention can now be placed on the muscles you are training more specifically.

Another extremely important aspect is that a warm-up increases the rate oxygen is delivered to the muscles. There are many reasons this is important, including speeding up metabolism. That’s right, speed up the metabolism, now you are hooked! That’s what we all are after. We know your body must breakdown your food to create energy. When you warm-up, your body does this much more effectively and can provide you with sustained energy throughout your workout allowing you to workout longer, which means more calories burned if that is what you are after.

Next on the long list of benefits a proper warm-up provides is neuromuscular efficiency.  This, very simply put, means your technique is better after a warm-up. In order to move, your brain sends out signals controlling everything. As you warm-up, signals are sent faster and are giving you fluid, controlled movements. This is very important when performing complicated lifts or very heavy lifts.

The last one I will put out there today is correcting muscular imbalances. You may not see them on yourself but I can assure you, they are there. Performing the warm-up I showed you can begin to stretch any of your tight areas as well as strengthen any weak areas (upper back is a super common one).

If you aren’t warming-up prior to your workout, you are doing a disservice to your body and you are keeping yourself from achieving your health goals. Plus you will just feel better during your workout and after the workout.

We are all athletes, it is up to you to let that athlete loose.

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