Written by Molly Galbraith
If you’re like most men (and women) in the gym, warming up is your least favorite part of your training session. Maybe you walk on the treadmill for a few minutes, or do a few body weight squats and arm circles to “warm yourself up.”
(Please please please just tell me that you’re not the person who walks over to the squat rack and throws a plate or two on each side and just starts squatting. That would hurt my heart).
Since you’re reading this article on Juggernaut, I’d like to assume that you’re in fact NOT like most people in the gym. I’d like to assume that you actually care about getting better, and you’re willing to do what others won’t to get where you want to be.
That’s why I’m bringing you, Meathead Mobility: How to Warm-up in 12 Minutes or Less.
In the video below, I will show you a fantastic breathing drill that will not only teach you to breathe properly, but it will help strengthen your anterior core, and teach you how to expand circumferentially (360 degrees), which is really important when you’re lifting big weights.
I’m also going to walk you through 8 basic mobility exercises that will target exactly what you (most likely) need: hip mobility and thoracic mobility, hip flexor and adductor lengthening, and core stability. If you can spend some time each session working on those things, you’ll become even more unstoppable.
So basically your warm-up should look something like this:
Rockback Breathing: 8-10 breaths – 2-3 minutes
Pull Knee to Chest: 8-10 reps each side – 1 minutes
Half Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch: 8 reps each side – 30 seconds/side
Single Leg Tactical Frog: 6 reps each side – 30 seconds/side
Glute Bridge: 8-10 reps – 30 seconds
Clam: 8-10 reps per side – 30 seconds/side
Band Supported Leg Lowering: 8 reps each side – 45 seconds/side
Open Book: 8 reps each side – 30 seconds/side
Quadruped Extension/Rotation: 8 reps each side – 30 seconds/side
Total time required: 10 – 11 minutes + 1 minute to transition between exercises = 11-12 minutes
OK, OK, OK. So let’s be realistic, I realize that some of you probably still won’t go through this warm-up, even though it can be done in less than 12 minutes.
So below, I am going to give you a worst-case-scenario-warm-up that can be done in 6 minutes.
Please, for the love of deadlifts, at least give me 6 minutes of real warming up (not just walking on a treadmill).
6-Minute-Worst-Case-Scenario-Warm-Up
Rockback Breathing: 4-5 breaths – 1.25 minutes
Half Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch: 6 reps each side – 20 seconds/side
Single Leg Tactical Frog: 4 reps each side – 20 seconds/side
Glute Bridge: 8 reps – 25 seconds
Band Supported Leg Lowering: 6 reps each side – 35 seconds/side
Open Book: 5 reps each side – 20 seconds/side
Quadruped Extension/Rotation: 5 reps each side – 20 seconds/side
Total time required: 5 minutes and 30 seconds + 30 seconds to haul ass and transition between exercises = 6 minutes
Remember, even if this feels like the worst 6-12 minutes of your workout, it’s the part that’s going to keep you healthy and able to train for years to come.
If you enjoyed this article, keep your eyes peeled for my Juggernaut Training Systems webinar coming up in a few weeks. I’ll be going way more in-depth on the breathing and providing you with more explanations and exercises you can use to improve your breathing. I’ll also be including more than double the amount of warm-up exercises I showed in this article, and I’ll be briefly discussing recovery as well, and how to use the breathing you will learn during the webinar to jump-start the recovery process, so you can train harder and more often.
Stay tuned!
