Girlwithnoname – Fitness at Home

Yep, I’m back from my training trip with my client in Hawaii, but to be honest I’m DYIN’ HERE!!

I know I said I’d be back today, but dang if that trip didn’t just plum-wear-me-OUT!

Plus, I’m scrambling like MAD just to catch up on everything I missed while I was away sunning and sweating, so I’m leaning on my good friend Matthew Blacker, fellow trainer and fitness blogger (and super smart guy) to save my butt today!

Enjoy a great and informative post by Matt about how to prevent injury by warming up properly. I’ll be back on Friday, I PROMISE!!

Thanks Matt! I owe ya one.

Injury prevention and Proper Warm-Ups

I absolutely LOVE training!  It fills me with all kinds of happiness and joy! You could almost say it’s a drug….and when I miss a workout or can’t go for whatever reason, I have withdrawal. It’s not a pretty sight!

With that being said, there was one area that I often overlooked when younger and that is ensuring a proper warm-up before you get “under the bar”! The benefits of an adequate warm-up are numerous and one of the main benefits is injury prevention!

When I was younger, my warm-up would be jogging up the 1 flight of stairs to the weight room and if I felt like really going for it, I was known to even throw in some arm swings. After that, I would consider myself ready to go!

Fortunately, my natural flexibility and a little bit of luck, prevented any serious injuries while training. If you haven’t guessed yet, my “warm-up” was totally inadequate!

Over the years I have learned the value of a proper warm-up. The improvements in both my clients training and my own has been significant, not to mention the huge decrease in injuries and  general ‘tweaks’.

There are many different ways to warm-up and what I have found to be best is using a dynamic warm-up. Depending on your current state of fitness, the use of a treadmill, rower of bike can also be used but sparingly and worse case scenario.

A dynamic warm-up can consist of any and all of the following:

Bodyweight squats

Reverse lunges

Jumping jacks

Cross body jumping jacks

Jumping rope

Glute bridges

Hip hinges

Push-ups

Fire hydrants (All fours, picture a dog and a fire hydrant) (lol) —>

Leg hurdles

Planks

Band pull-aparts

Etc…

Pick several of the above and run through them 1-3 times for 10 reps each. The key is to work up so a light ‘mist’ covers your body and all your muscles and joints are properly warmed and loosened up.

A thorough shoulder warm-up is also essential for injury prevention and re-hab. Again, there are various ways to do this. One of the common ways I have my clients do this is by grabbing a very light pair of dumbbells and then doing the following exercises for 1-3 sets, 6-8 reps each:

Side laterals with thumb up (just to parallel)

Shoulder rotations

In terms of training and injury prevention … it takes a bit of smarts.

I cringe when I see people doing the following:

Shoulder press behind the neck

Lat pull downs behind the neck

Squatting or dead-lifting with a rounded back

Straight bar pull overs …

… etc. etc …

The list could go on, but hopefully the point is taken.

Any time you put the shoulders or neck or knees or back or any part of your body in a strained or impinged position, you are asking for trouble.

The shoulder specifically is a very intricate ball and socket joint with many tendons, ligaments and a crossroad of muscle insertion points etc. As such, it is necessary to avoid some exercises (as listed above) thereby keeping your shoulders healthy and minimizing the risk of injury, impingement or the dreaded strained rotator cuff.

I will always recommend pull-downs to the front, shoulder pressing to the front, and for something like a pullover, using an ez-bar or dumbbells rather than a straight bar. You will be able to get a greater stretch while at the same time keeping the shoulders healthy.

The take home point is to warm-up properly by selecting the appropriate exercises, equipment and method. You will minimize the risk of injury and it will also get you better fired up to attack the weights and set personal records!

I’m glad that I learned the value of warming up, because as I said earlier, the last thing I want is to miss a workout or get an injury … and I know you feel the same.

Keep well, keep strong,

Matt B

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Words of wisdom, indeed! Thanks again Matt, I’m sure we all really appreciate the reminder of just HOW important warm-ups really are.

Feel free to check out Matt at his blog: Matthew Blacker’s Straight Up Strength and Conditioning or follow him over on Twitter where he tweets as @MatthewBlacker .

Have a fit, fun and fantastic day.
Girlwithnoname

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