Ok, CrossFitters…..you all know I’m a pretty easy going girl. I correct form and give advice without yelling or fussing. Most of you would probably never know that my nickname growing up was Sergeant Sue. Well, Sarge is gonna be showing up more often if you don’t heed the following advice. I see far too many of you NOT warming up properly!! Come on now, you know better. You were taught the Burgener warmup, you know how to run, row, jump rope, bike, and do muscle/joint specific warmups. How can you expect proper performance from your body if you don’t give it what it needs? Using the first 400 meter run or row of the WOD as your warmup IS NOT acceptable!
As you all know I recently had a leg injury that, among many factors, I can honestly say lack of a proper warmup attributed. I was in a hurry to start, just wanted to get it over with, etc. We’ve all been there, done that. Let me be your example of what not to do. WARM UP so YOU (yes, I’m talking to EVERY one of you) don’t get injured. Read the following post from CrossFit One World. While he talks about warming up before weightlifting we KNOW that it applies to every time we workout no matter what the exercise is.
Watch the Redline……
I strongly doubt that anytime any of you pull your car out a driveway you punch the pedal to the metal. Imagine that. You pick the kids up from school…floor it! Pulling out of the grocery story… Zero to Sixty Baby! Picking up your grandma for a day of shopping….Days of Thunder!
You don’t do that in a car because you know that the likelihood that you damage your car is high. It’s also pretty dangerous. So let me ask you…Why would you do that when you weight lift???
We warm up before every workout because it helps prevent injury. You get the blood flowing in your body. You work out stiffness. You begin to move more fluidly. It’s smart. Weightlifting is no different. I’ve explained it thousands of times. Start light. Lift lots of reps fast. Add weight as you work up to your working sets, and then hit your heavy weights. It kills me when we post a working set of 5×5 or 5×3 and right off the bat people just load up the bar with what they think they can lift for the working set.
Warming up is essential. I know that I lift WAY better and WAY heavier when I work up to my desired loads. Here is an example of how I would handle a 5×3 dead lift:
I start with a super light weight and rip out 10 reps. I add weight and immediately pound out another 8 reps. Increase the load to something heavier and hit 5 reps. I then start playing around with heavier loads at anywhere between 1 to 2 reps. I eventually decide on the weight I am going to do and then I hit my working sets.
Your warm up sets can be performed with very minimal time between sets. Once you get to your working sets, rest 2-3 minutes between sets. It is very important that you keep track of what you lift on any given day. If you think you went too light, go heavier the next time. The first time you do a 5×3 or 5×5 at any movement, it is better to underestimate what you think you should do than overestimate. You can always add more weight next time. That’s the beauty of 5×5′s and 5×3′s. Once you start recording your loads, you should be adding 10# every workout to any lower body movements and 5# for upper body workouts.
Please warm up proper. There is more than enough time to get the work done in a training session as long as you do it smart. No one wants to be injured, and everyone wants to be stronger. Being stronger makes life easier.
