Coming Back Around to the Warm Up

 "We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing."

My last year of chiropractic school presented with an opportunity to compete to make the USA National Bobsled team.  One of the biggest aspects of training was running fast.  Training to run fast was the goal for the next few months.  One problem it was winter.  I found one indoor running track that allowed me to train on it from 5-6am.  

Me and the old folks.

I had a sprinting background from years in high school and college.  So a standard warm up was between 45-60 min for about 3-8 quality reps that lasted between 3-6 seconds.  Drills, drills, drills.  

"Don't ever stop doing that stuff and you won't ever have any problems like us!"

I remember those words from the same guy that would shuffle around the track every morning while I was there.  My life at the time was train, school, rugby, study.  Day in and day out.  My reference point was training.  My only thought when hearing those words, why would I?  Why would I stop warming up?

Fast forward a decade plus and I know have my own business and a kid.  The shift wasn't training, it was working out.  There is a huge difference. No plan, just get a work out in as time permitted.  The first thing to be lost was the warm up.  I no longer had to operate in the 95-99% of maximum efficiency.  

What was lost?

Warm ups are designed to expose the body to gradual increase in temperature.  10 min has been designated a minimum.  Think of it as gradual body perfusion of increased blood flow.  Blood flow is how things heal.  Cutting out the warm up is cutting out opportunity for helping little niggles to get better.

Warm up use multiple movements in multiple planes.  This is simply doing lots of different movements then what we have done on a routine basis.  Squatting, lunging, reaching, tumbling, gradual exposure into lengthening and loading tissues that haven't been active all day.  Joints have rotational capabilities that need to be expressed daily or they begin to stiffen.  Capsules need synovial fluid to stay healthy.  Synovial reaches the capsule through movement.  If you don't expose the joint to angles it doesn't drive synovial fluid into those spaces.  Cutting out the warm up cuts out the maintenance of joint range of motion.  

Warm ups allow gradual practice of the skill of the movement.  Rep after rep.  Regardless if it's a sprint, a squat, a deadlift or a push up, sprinting and lifting have a skill component that needs to be constantly kept fresh.  Skills that are practiced generally get better.  Cutting out the warm up cuts out the opportunity to practice skills.  

Warm ups allow us to take inventory of body parts and body movements that don't quite feel right.  Maybe, we spend a few extra minutes exploring those.  If something feels off after several days, perhaps we seek help, even if it's just a YouTube search of the area from a trusted source.  If you don't know your shoulder hurts when you do a table top stretch maybe it festers into something worse months later.  Cutting the warm up cuts out that screening process.  

For the general person adding or keeping a quality warm up for 10-15 min can bring many health and performance benefits.  Even if you only had 20 minutes, a 10 min warm up still allows ten minutes for high quality one or two movements.  Allow yourself the opportunity to keep giving your body a chance to move and improve.  Don't let that body get to old to play.