How to Warm Up for Flexibility Training

What is a warm-up? It is an essential part of your workout, so don’t skip it! Your flexibility training warm-up should serve the following fuctions:

• Move through your joints.  Move through the full range of motion of every joint in your body paying particular attention to the joints that you use for your activity (if you are a dancer or aerialist that means all of them). This is not stretching, it is just moving and breaking up the stiffness that accumulates when we sleep or sit around.

• Get the body warm, of course. That means cardio. As we’ve discussed previously in our post about back warmers, your muscles are happiest stretching at 1-2 degrees above your normal body temperature. Cardio can be any kind of activity that elevates your heart rate and gets you sweating a little. I like burpees because in two minutes I’m huffing and my heart is going fast, but it can be anything that works for you.

• Set your intentions. Envision your workout. Take a few deep breaths before you go into your full training session and picture the things that you want to accomplish, the more detailed the better. Make some goals for yourself, feel your body, and leave everything else behind. Get into the moment. (Tip: a fitness journal is a great tool in this regard.)

Take 10-15 minutes to do these three things and your workout will be far more productive; and you’ll be less prone to injury, distraction, and aimlessness.