Mike Staropoli
Physical therapist, founder of GOAL, passionate about ACL rehab + return to sport and Manchester United.
Today, the warm-up is a staple in most sports, gyms, and games regardless of age, coach or level of competition. A quality and thoughtful warm-up, however, is a different story. There are different factors and intentions to the warm-up depending upon setting (gym vs field), age, ability, sport, injury history, game vs practice, etc. It is improbable to have a bunch of 7 year olds doing mobility drills (and likely not needed) when getting them to eat their veggies is hard enough! The 17 year old with an ACL reconstruction or pro runner with low back pain, however, may be a different story.
A high quality warm-up or as we reference at GOAL, movement preparation, should be a staple to all training, workouts, games and rehabilitation sessions. We have moved away from the “warm up” term as it simply isn’t as robust of a term as it should be. It often lends it self to heating up the body to move however movement preparation should play a much larger role in the success of training or competition. Movement prep consists of specificity of movement for the training day, directional considerations, velocity of movement and force. Here are 6 essentials to building your movement preparation.
Start your warm-up with soft tissue work.
Manual therapy solutions in isolation generally won’t “fix” pain or address an impairment that may be limiting you. What manual therapy can provide key opportunities to prepare the body for further improvement. This includes short term reductions in pain, sensitization (less sensitive), reducing delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), and improve movement capacity showing improvements in range of motion. This may consist of massage, graston, dry needling, joint manipulation, foam rolling or any other self mobilization tool.
The biggest key to using soft tissue work may not necessarily be doing the work itself. The key is what you do after. Self soft tissue work or manual therapy creates a window for improvement. Following this up with targeted movement-based and load-based training/rehab is essential to reinforce the potential for progress.
For example, if you have knee pain, which we determined to be a weakness in your quad, our physical therapists provide manual therapy to reduce pain and improving range of motion. These improvements will be short lasting. If we follow that up with an exercise like a lunge, it will allow us to work on progressing tissue strength with reduced or no pain, creating the window of opportunity for improvement.
Move from single joint to multi-joint movement.
As we move through preparation for training, we often localize addressing single joint movements and progress into multi-joint movement. We do so for a few reasons. For the individual, it gives opportunity to “check in” with themselves how their hip may feel after playing two games on a weekend. It also allows athletes to self-assess how a previous injury may feel with some easy movement. This also allows for learning how to move joints in an individual environment, having the motor control to isolate movement and learn to use full active range of motion prior to greater dynamic positions.
As we begin to move individual joints, we progressively add greater movement range as well as progress to multi-joint movements. A prime example is performing a Hip Car as part of your warm up and progressing to unweighted squats, particularly when that movement is something you may be training that day.
Another reason is to learn technique. As movement becomes more dynamic or have greater load, technique and ability to move well becomes more essential. If we don’t have quality movement capacity, it certainly comes to light as we add speed. An example of learning technique is with sprinting. A simple drill we use is ankle, calf and knee dribbles– a foot placement and turnover drill incorporated as part of movement prep prior to sprinting. It is quick and smooth but with less range of movement, learning proper trunk upright posture, turnover and foot strike. Progress to some level of sprinting after.
Address mobility in your ankles, hips and thoracic spine.
Our body’s anatomy is built with specific capacities and roles depending on the structure or group of structures. This translates into either isolated joint movements or global movement patterns. The joint by joint approach, popularized by Gray Cook and Mike Boyle, references general alternating roles of joints in our body. Referenced in the picture here, the foot, hip, thoracic spine, shoulder, wrist and neck are generally more mobile joints with greater movement options in multiple different directions or planes of movement. The knee, lumbar spine, scapula and elbow have less degrees of freedom or at least primarily structured to move in specific planes.
Knowing this, we want to prime our ankles, hips, and thoracic spine as well as the soft tissue surrounding it to optimize movement potential. Take into account your injuries, mobility restrictions, joint laxity and any asymmetries. In addition, we want to prime our joints of greater anatomic stability to transfer force appropriately.
Injuries are multifactorial, meaning they can occur for a variety of reasons. Take ACL injuries for example. Mechanisms of injury can be contact related and non-contact related. Often you see a knee valgus, knee moving inward, type of motion. If it were as easy as avoiding that movement, training should primarily focus on that. However, there is a multitude of reasons, including but not limited to playing surface (turf vs grass vs court), gender, phase of menstrual cycle, age, sport as well as many more.
In this example, and using the joint-by-joint approach, making sure our hips and ankle have adequate ROM and control as well as the trunk and knee transfer force appropriately is one way to help reduce the risk of injury. When we ask more from a joint than it is built to do, we run into trouble.
Mimic the day’s training goals.
If everything is important than nothing is important. It is essential to training success to have an objective and priority to accomplish.
Here are two examples:
- If your goal is to work on improving maximal velocity, top speed, your training for the day should be developed with that in mind. Training should include top end speed work early in the session as it is neurologically fatiguing as well as add appropriate rest, approx. 1 min for every 10 yards covered. “Sprint” training at the end of practice becomes fitness as players will not be able to hit 95%+ of speed.
- Your plan for training is maximal strength for a defender working on vertical jump for heading the ball. Part of the warm up should likely include hip mobility drills and squat patterning to prepare for your squat in the lift. Training should also include both progression in loading to build to a maximal squat as well as plyometrics, jump related training, to reinforce the exact skill you want to improve– the vertical jump.
In both of these examples, it is essential to keep your eye set on the objective. If we approach improving maximal speed with running 5 laps around the soccer field, all that is occurring is your athletes will be tired and nowhere near able to effectively hit max velocity. Specificity is key.
Treat it as part of your workout. Don’t waste time.
“The likelihood of achieving a performance goal is increased 7x in those that complete >80% of their training.”
– Dustin Nabhan, Senior Director of Research, US Olympic Committee
I love this quote as it reinforces consistency in total training days completed vs planned. This is an area you see the most successful athletes thrive, regardless of “natural” ability.
The biggest mistake we see is the lack of intention and focus on movement preparation. This is a key opportunity to assess how you’re feeling for the session or match and hone in your focused.
Keep movement preparation relatively short, +/- 15 minutes and up to 10 movement patterns. This will help keep focus, increase body temperature and prime the body for performance.
If you train 5 days/week between practice, lifts and matches, a 15 minute warm–up translates to 62+ hours over the course of a year! Make it quality and valuable warm-up!
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