Are you jeopardising your progress in the gym?

These days I see a lot of different styles of training from a lot of different people at the gym - Strongmen, bodybuilders, crossfitters, cardio kings and queens etc. Regardless of their form of training, there's one common factor that ties them all together - the vast majority of them seem to jump straight into their workouts without warming up.

I know that the concept of a warm up being something that could potentially jeopardise your progress if not observed/not done correctly is a pretty simple one, yet so many people neglect the process. Maybe they don't have the time to warm up, maybe it bores them, maybe they think that it doesn't apply to them. If the latter is the reason for not warming up then they're either not training properly in terms of mechanics, or they're not training very hard at all.

Image credit - www.winetoweightlifting.com

Why should you warm up? 

There are a few simple answers to this question, but I'll just highlight two. Firstly, working out without warming up means that you're going into a workout without preparing your muscles. This in turn means that you have an extremely high risk of injury, especially if you plan on performing some heavy compound lifts. Secondly, a warm up will stretch out your muscles and contribute to better mobility. Therefore if you're not stretching and warming up, your mobility will be affected and if you don't get injured, you won't be able to perform your lifts with the full range of motion, losing the effectiveness of the lift.

If you grew up in a similar environment to me then the idea of stretching and warming up probably involves a bunch of generic, static stretches like toe touching. I'm not saying that this form of stretching is redundant, but it definitely isn't optimal.

Image credit - crossfithelena.com

Where to start

Forget what you know about stretching and warming up, the first step is to re-educate yourself. There are a lot of stretching and warm up routines out there, some better than others. One that I'd particularly recommend to newbies is The Ultimate Warm Up Routine from Muscle and Fitness. Its also got a great article attached to it.

Another one (and one that I'm currently using) is a warm up routine featured in an ebook called Strength and Power. It can be found on Iron Mac Fitness. There's a lot of great information in that book, so I'd suggest downloading it. Its also FREE.

Image credit - www.ironmacfitness.com

When it comes to the time you spend stretching, there's not a prescribed amount of reps or time that you should do it for. You should switch between relaxing and holding a stretch until you feel the target muscle loosen up properly. Don't rush the process, impatience is a step away from injury.

If you've got any questions or feedback regarding this article, please feel free to drop a comment below or get in touch with me on social media using the buttons below.