The Okada Method

21st January 2012

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How To Properly Warm Up

The Ultimate Warm-Up

People seem to get stuck before they even start their training session by not knowing what to do for a warm up, so I decided to cut all confusion and create the ultimate warm up. The purpose of a warm up is to fully prepare the body for an activity. In this case, it is to loosen up, raise the core body temperature, prepare the joints, and prime the nervous system.

The idea behind the ultimate warm-up is to completely prepare and prime the body for intense physical activity. When done properly and with purpose, it will increase full body flexibility and mobility, something that everyone seems to lack these days.

The ultimate warm-up is broken down into three main portions: static stretches, basic joint mobility, and a full dynamic warm-up. All of the exercises were chosen for good, specific reasons. Although static stretching before training is fully frowned upon by the fitness industry, the stretches that I employ are used to loosen up chronically tight areas of the body, such as the lower back, hamstrings, and hip flexors. The joint mobility portion is designed to get the body used to full ranges of motion and lubricate and prep the joints. Finally, the dynamic portion of the warm-up is the prime the nervous system for the workout. This type of warm-up is often omitted from many programs because most people think too much of the muscular aspect of training and completely forget about the CNS (central nervous system). When the CNS is primed and fired up, you become much more explosive and are ready to handle intense training.

I once heard someone say that warming up is completely overrated and is unnecessary. Let me walk you through the following scenario.

Let’s say you go to school and finish your classes. Being the traditional school you go to, you sit for hours on end and hardly move any of your joints through any type of motion. You become completely stiff from the day’s inactivity by the time you slug your way to the gym in the cold and change into your training clothes. Would you say that you are ready to tackle heavy weights and set a new record on the squat? I hardly think so. These people get nowhere in their training.

The scary part of this is that it was a track and field coach who said warming up is overrated. I can’t even begin to think of how badly the athletes’ performances were affected and how many injuries could have been prevented. These people are no good to listen to.

When you perform the warm up, I usually like to start at the bottom of the body and work my way up.

The Warm Up

Static Stretches

1. Elevated Foot Ankle Stretch
2. Hip Flexor/Quads Stretch (Lunge)
3. Hamstring/Lower Back Stretch
4. Knee To Chest Gluteus Stretch
5. Half Buddha IT Band Stretch

Mobility Movements

1. Fire Hydrants (Hip circles): 10 rounds each leg in each direction
2. Mobility squats: 2x10
3. Shoulder dislocations: 20
4. Bird-Dog: 10 each side
5. Push Up: 15 (if able)
6. Pull Up: 2x5 (if able)

Dynamic Exercises

1. Soldier Walk
2. Jumping Jacks: 25
3. Standing High Jumps: 5x2

This may seem a lot for a warm up, and it probably is, but for many of us it takes a while to warm up to intense activity. The sheer volume itself will ensure that the body is fully warm and “awake” while making sure to not sap away any excess energy needed for the main workout. You know those days where you feel like crap, start your workout, and then halfway through or even after the entire session you feel a whole lot better and “ready” to tackle the weights? That’s what I mean by “awakening” your body. If you put yourself through enough activity, your body will wake up. If someone does end up being tired after this, then I don’t know what to tell them.

After the Ultimate Warm Up, you will then warm up into the activity for the day. If you are lifting weights, you will start with low weights with moderate reps and work up to the working weights by increasing the weight and decreasing the sets. As you approach the working weight, you will use smaller weight jumps. For example, this is how you will warm up to a 315-pound squat

45(bar) x 10 reps

135x8

185x6

205x6

225x5

255x4

275x3

295x2

305x1

315 (the working set)

This progression is only an example and more or less sets may be needed. How many? The general rule that I follow is this: When in doubt, do more work up sets with lower weight and lower reps.

All of the reps should be performed as explosively as possible while maintaining control. You don’t want to bench press the bar so hard that you dislocate your shoulder, but once the weight becomes real “weight”, move the weight as quickly as possible through space. This will further activate your nervous system and as you ramp up the weight, each set should progressively feel easier to perform because your nervous system is becoming more efficient and used to firing out to move the weights as explosively as possible. This is called neural ramping. It is just a fancy name for a simple concept.

If your main activity of the day are hill sprints, you will simply warm up to it by performing a small number of hill sprints at around 60 percent of full intensity.

Remember that it is incredibly important to perform a full and thorough warm-up before an activity. It is a very simple and powerful way to prevent injury while exponentially increasing performance and strength levels. A good warm up can make or break the actual training session.

So the bottom line here is to fully wake your body in preparation for the training session ahead. To do that, simple put yourself through a warm up that addresses flexibility, mobility, and dynamic activation. For weights, work up to the desired work weight. For conditioning, simply work up to the prescribed activity.