So this past weekend my friends and I went to The Ex, for those of you not from Toronto it’s just a big carnival.

We were there for a birthday but I had one objective, and that was to throw the hammer down and ring that bell. You know that sledgehammer game every carnival on earth seems to have? That one. I had never attempted it in my life. As a kid I would watch larger men swing only to come up short and walk away empty handed.

Now it was my turn. I had been swinging the sledgehammer during our strongman sessions all summer, almost in preparation for this moment. I stepped up and hit the bell 3 times. It was a joke. I have to say I was thoroughly disappointed and spent most of that evening asking the workers if there was another hammer game. Alas, there was not. I joked with my friends that I’d probably set out on a journey around the world playing those games. Yeahhh…joked…

3
Intensely training to conquer the CNE bell

In other news there’s a new Riddick movie which I’m going to see regardless of how shitty the last one was. And apparently it comes out Friday, gonna be sweet!

Ok, on to the training stuff. If you’re warming up before your workout you’re already ahead of the pack, but if you’re half-assing your warm-ups you’re leaving a lot of progress on the table.

A good warm up not only “warms you up” but serves to promote mobility and muscle activation while priming the nervous system and grooving technique for the upcoming training session.

Yeah. It does all that.

Even though it does all that, people like to breeze through them. Trust me; I’m guilty of it too. We go through the motions because we just want to lift the heavy stuff. That’s where the results are right? Not entirely. I’ll give you a simple tip to improve your fat loss efforts by just changing your warm ups.

More Movement!

This is something I use with many of my clients if the goal is fat loss. By simply adding more movement to your warm ups you increase the amount of muscle mass used and this adds up over time. Aside from burning more calories, you can still use larger bodyweight movements to get that muscle activation you need while solidifying technique and increasing work capacity.

A solid technique will allow you to lift heavier weights and keep proper form under the high intensity required for fat loss workouts. A higher work capacity will allow you to do more work. More work = more fat loss.

A simple progression is taking your ground based movements to standing, standing movements to moving, and making your regular movements more explosive.

Here’s are two examples of a basic warm up for someone who requires thoracic and hip mobility, core and glute
activation, and nervous system priming for a deadlift.

Base warm up
Foam rolling
Quadruped Thoracic Extension Rotation
Rocking Hip Flexor Mobilization
Bird Dog
Single Leg Glute Bridge
Broad Jump

Progressed Warm Up
Foam Rolling
Walking Spiderman with Reach
X band Walks
Marching Bridge
Broad Jump

These are very basic examples so you get idea of the concept. Warm ups would obviously have to be tailored to the specific goal and individual.

Next time you plan your warm up put some serious thought into it. What areas require mobility? Activation? When you know the goal of your warm up it becomes easier to then select movements that not only achieve these goals but do so using larger movements and more muscle mass.


Facebook Conversations

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Captcha! Prove you\'re human :) Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.