Warming-Up - This is How You Do It

Many of my new personal training clients will give me a puzzled look when I stop them from stretching during the warm-up phase of a training session. I personally believed that warming up revolves around running 10 rounds at the soccer field followed by muscles stretching thanks to my physical education lessons in school and training with the school soccer team, the Taekwondo team did the same thing as well.

But why am I stopping my clients from stretching?

We'll first need to understand what is a warm-up. To keep things simple, here's a general breakdown of what a warm-up does;

• To increase body's core temperature, heart rate and supply of blood to muscles.
• To loosen joints, increase mobility and range of motion.
• To loosen muscles that are tight.

Every training session's warm-up will be different depending on the training routine and physical feeling. Usually my clients will perform the overhead squat test to determine which joints and muscles are tight and requires more focus before the training phase begins. Once they feel flexible and mobile enough, we'll proceed with training.

Generally speaking the old school method of warming-up that consist of running for a certain distance or time (usually 10-15 minutes) is a waste of your body's energy source that could be made use for a more efficient training, while stretching your muscles will only weaken it's ability to generate more strength.

If your personal trainer is asking you to run an extended period on the treadmill calling it warm-up, I call that your PT is wasting your time and money away.