Warm ups: why we do them and how to do them Part 2

Hello and welcome back to the ASC blog. I want to start this post with a quick recap on the previous blog and what was talked about.

We spoke about performing a warm up is an essential part of all training sessions and competition events. The main reason for performing a warm up routine is to prevent injury, specifically muscular injury. When accounting for injuries in sport more than 30% of injuries were attributed to skeletal muscle injuries in sport medicine clinics (Woods, K; Bishop, P; & Jones, E; 2007).

Finally, I began to explain the RAMP method (see below) and the first two parts of the method (Raise body temperature and Activate the muscles)

The RAMP is a 4-stage protocol which can be used to warm up for any training session or bout of physical activity. RAMP stands for:

• Raise body temperature
• Activate the muscles which will be used in the session
• Mobilize the body for the movement patterns required in the session
• Potentiate the body – gradually increase the stress on the body so it is prepared for the intensity of the session

A link to the full blog can be found here how to perform a warm up part 1

Part 2

This blog post will now focus on the mobilization and Potentiate phases of the RAMP method. My hope is you will have a better understanding as why mobilization is different from the activation phase and how the potentiation phase affects the following session if not performed.

Mobilization

As the name suggests, mobilization is focusing on the movement patterns required for the session. The example I am going to use to explain this phase is a lower body gym session, specifically beginning with a squat. The movement of the squat is a complex movement and this blog will not go into finer points of the squat. If you need further refinement in your squat, I will speak about it in its own post in the future.

 Keeping that in mind, the squat is a hip and knee dominant movement where the goal of the movement is to have the ankle, knee and hip joints in a 90 degree angle (this would show as hips in line or just below the knee) or a smaller angle if possible (the smaller angle is created when you are able to bring your hips closer to floor).

This requires a huge number of coaching and teaching points, which we will not discuss but the key points I want to highlight here would be a flat, neutral back, chest close to vertical as hips are lowered to the ground.

So how do we warm up the muscles required for this movement? The following is a list of exercises, when performed correctly, will engage the muscles in the movement patterns that the squat will need to follow. They are:

• Crab walks for hip abduction
• Curtsy lunge for hip adduction
• Goblet Squat or bodyweight squat

These exercises will engage the muscle groups in movements relative to the pattern of the movement for the squat and will lead into the potentiation phase of our warm up.

Potentiation Phase

The potentiation phase of any warm up, is a relatively easy phase to explain. This is where the intensity of the warm up builds to the point where intensity is close to matching the required intensity of the session. As we are focusing on the squat, we will look at the following versions of the squat:

• Front Squat
• Back squat

The front squat  can be used in the final part of the mobilization phase for the back squat if so desired but it is also an exercise which can be the main focus of a training session and programme depending on the emphasis for the training block, the sport in question or rehabbing an injury.

When doing the final phase of a warm up for a squat session, the easiest method is to perform 10 reps with only the bar as resistence and allowing enough rest, add 5 or 10 kg weight to this until you have reached your working sets weight. The number of reps you will perform will vary depending on the weight on the bar and the number of reps you are performing per set.

For example, if I were to perform 5 sets of 5 reps at 100kg, I would not attempt 10 reps at 90 kg as this could cause fatigue. I would perform 1 set of 8 reps at 90kg and 1 set of 5 at 95kg, focusing on bracing my core and engaging throughout the movement. If I was unable to do this, then I would have to adjust my session and focus on improving my technique with a weight from one of my warm up sets.

Potentiation phase can suffer from CNS (central nervous system) fatigue and as such sufficient rest should be included between sets as you build to working sets. If you do not do this your warm up will be somewhat compromised and will result in poor performance for the session.

I hope you found this blog post educational and if you would like to check out the above exercises, head over to my Instagram page (coach_mulvihill). If you have any questions regarding this topic or anything related this you can email me at coachmulvihill@outlook.ie

Happy Lifting

Adam