How to Warm Up Before Your Workout

By Robbie Cannon

Gym workouts, like everything else in life, materialise  along  a spacious spectrum of efficiency. On one side of the spectrum, we have ample time to conduct the perfect session where everything we planned to achieve in our session is achieved. The athlete is engaged and is working hard.  Coach and athlete are happy. Progress has been made. 

 On the other side of the spectrum, we have sessions that are rushed. The athlete is not engaged. Learning and adaptation is minimised. Coach and athlete leave the session thinking that their time could have been better spent doing something else more useful. 

The Average Joe, especially in the world of golf fitness, has this perception that strength and conditioning is all about lifting weights, when in fact, there are so many more components to strength and conditioning than lifting iron. 

Like every other science, sports science is developing and research is showing us potential new and fresh ways of training our athletes better.  Coaches with growth mindsets continue to educate themselves with evolving practices and technologies to provide better coaching for their athletes. 

The question we often face as coaches is: "How do we maximise the limited time with our athletes and what components of fitness should we concentrate on?"

Of course a lot of this comes down to the training age of the athlete, periodisation and stage of the season. 

No matter what period of the season, a good training session should consist of the following:

1. Good breathing habits 
2. Mobility training
3. Stability training 
4. Cardiovascular training   
5. Activation 

These components can all be trained in a warm up and can get your training session off to a dynamic and fun start. It is certainly much more productive than 10 minutes on the bike. 

Warm up can be defined as follows:

“Prepare for physical exertion or a performance by exercising or practicing gently beforehand”

There is an excellent opportunity to use a systematic warm up to make our training sessions more efficient. 

At Cannon Performance, we see the warm up as a great opportunity to work on several components of fitness that we want our athletes to benefit from. 

To perform this warm up, you are going to need some space to run. Outside works super, providing it is not cold or wet. An indoor track works great also. The great thing about this warm up is it that it can be used with several athletes at the same time if this training session is in a group environment. 

Start 

Foam Rolling (3 mins)

Diaphragmatic breathing (3 mins)

1 x 50 metre stride (40%)

1 x 10 bodyweight squats 

1 x 50 metre stride (40%)

1 x 10 lateral lunges (both legs)

1 x 50 metre stride (40%)

1 x 8 forward lunge (both legs)

1 x 50 metre stride (40%)

1 x 10 dynamic leg raise hamstring mobilty  (both legs)

1 x 10 50 metre stride (40%)

1 x 8 CARS (controlled articular rotations of hip)  both directions both legs

1 x 50 metre stride (40%)

1 x 8 reverse lunge (both legs)

[water break 30 secs]

1 x 50 metre stride (50%)

1 x 10 stiff leg jumps 

1 x 50 metre strides (50%)

1 x 8 CARS (controlled articular rotations of shoulder) both directions both arms

1 x 50 metre strides (50%)

1 x 10 wide stance thoracic reach (alternate)

1 x 50 metre stride (50%)

1 x 8 thoracic circles against wall

3 x 50 metre strides (60 %) 50 metre walk between strides

Whether before a workout or a round of golf, if you want to maximize your performance you have to prepare your body to move well. Hopefully this helps provide some background on how to move with a purpose before your workout and how it benefit you.