Fadi
...
Strike up a conversation in your gym with the “experts” there, and more often than not it’ll be all about the same old thing: volume, intensity, frequency, free weights vs. machines, protein, carbs, fats, supplements, steroids (at times), and on it goes…
So what is most important that is often neglected you ask? Warming up properly before you commence your workout and stretching afterwards that’s what!
Ah yes I nearly forgot; you don’t have the time, you’re in a rush (always?), you don’t find it important, it does not excite you like the “meat & potatoes” which you are so eager to get into. I know, I left the best excuse (not valid reason mind you) til last: “it drains me…makes me tired/takes away from my workout”, or “man I can feel my glycogen stores dissipating before my eyes”!
Really?!
To the ones who know me well, I can hear your objections from here behind my computer screen. You’re objecting because I’m mixing Olympic weightlifting with simply weight lifting/bodybuilding/weight training etc. Well let me tell you right here and now that your body sees no difference between any/all the iron lifting. You see injuries, be they the muscle kind or the joint kind, do not differentiate between the above mentioned sports. It’s all weight lifting as far as your body is concerned. All of them have a level of stress increase that is placed on your body as a whole, so a proper warm is one of the tools we use to get us primed and ready to smash the weights...safely.
In a nutshell, a proper warm up is being prescribed here no to burden you, weigh you down, and/or sap your energy reserves, no; this mighty powerhouse of a tool is here to help you improve your performance and prevent or at least minimise as many injuries as possible not to mention the possibility of extending your lifting career.
Okay, so what would be the first thing on the menu if not meat & potatoes? Well take your pick from the following body core temperature raisers:
Now we move on to what I’d like to call: The Block.
The block is a set of exercises done one after the other with a very light weight…as in an empty 20kg bar or lighter. First we raised our core temperature and revved up our metabolic rate; now we move onto waking our neuromuscular system up.
The Block: (or the magnificent seven).
That’s it! About 15 minutes of your time allocated to some entrée before you dig into that juicy stake that is just waiting to be devoured by your primed and ready to go muscles.
Don’t forget the dessert after you’ve had the main course okay! I’m talking about some good and long muscle stretching here.
To all the bodybuilders, I’d like you to replace the “Block” with 7 warm-up exercises of your choice, ensuring a full body involvement here.
Example:
Now you can proceed to do your intended workout.
PS: Someone may come and say: “but why do a warm-up set of squats when my intended workout would be shoulders and arms (for example)?”
My answer is have you not heard of the most famous way elite athletes injure themselves? It’s most often whilst they’re not even in the gym for God’s sake! Or even if they be at the gym, all it takes is for them to move a weight /lift a weight from point A to point B in the wrong way and BANG, there goes the hamstring, or the lower back or whatever else that you lifted with whilst you were not in your best line of power (because well…the weight you were moving was ever so light)!
I’ll leave you with this final thought:
They say a smart man is one who learns from his own mistakes, but a wise man is the one who learns from the mistakes of others…
Thank you for your time.
Fadi.
So what is most important that is often neglected you ask? Warming up properly before you commence your workout and stretching afterwards that’s what!
Ah yes I nearly forgot; you don’t have the time, you’re in a rush (always?), you don’t find it important, it does not excite you like the “meat & potatoes” which you are so eager to get into. I know, I left the best excuse (not valid reason mind you) til last: “it drains me…makes me tired/takes away from my workout”, or “man I can feel my glycogen stores dissipating before my eyes”!
Really?!
To the ones who know me well, I can hear your objections from here behind my computer screen. You’re objecting because I’m mixing Olympic weightlifting with simply weight lifting/bodybuilding/weight training etc. Well let me tell you right here and now that your body sees no difference between any/all the iron lifting. You see injuries, be they the muscle kind or the joint kind, do not differentiate between the above mentioned sports. It’s all weight lifting as far as your body is concerned. All of them have a level of stress increase that is placed on your body as a whole, so a proper warm is one of the tools we use to get us primed and ready to smash the weights...safely.
In a nutshell, a proper warm up is being prescribed here no to burden you, weigh you down, and/or sap your energy reserves, no; this mighty powerhouse of a tool is here to help you improve your performance and prevent or at least minimise as many injuries as possible not to mention the possibility of extending your lifting career.
Okay, so what would be the first thing on the menu if not meat & potatoes? Well take your pick from the following body core temperature raisers:
- Brisk tread mill walk
- Stationary bike ride
- Rowing machine
Now we move on to what I’d like to call: The Block.
The block is a set of exercises done one after the other with a very light weight…as in an empty 20kg bar or lighter. First we raised our core temperature and revved up our metabolic rate; now we move onto waking our neuromuscular system up.
The Block: (or the magnificent seven).
- Power Snatch x10
- B/neck press x10
- B/squats x10
- Snatch balance x5
- Clean + 2 jerks x5
- Walking lunges with the bar x20 steps
- Push-ups x10
That’s it! About 15 minutes of your time allocated to some entrée before you dig into that juicy stake that is just waiting to be devoured by your primed and ready to go muscles.
Don’t forget the dessert after you’ve had the main course okay! I’m talking about some good and long muscle stretching here.
To all the bodybuilders, I’d like you to replace the “Block” with 7 warm-up exercises of your choice, ensuring a full body involvement here.
Example:
- Seated rowing
- D/bell bench press
- Lat pulldown
- B/neck press (or military press if you’re worried about injury)
- Dead lifts
- B/bell curls/French curls
- Squats
Now you can proceed to do your intended workout.
PS: Someone may come and say: “but why do a warm-up set of squats when my intended workout would be shoulders and arms (for example)?”
My answer is have you not heard of the most famous way elite athletes injure themselves? It’s most often whilst they’re not even in the gym for God’s sake! Or even if they be at the gym, all it takes is for them to move a weight /lift a weight from point A to point B in the wrong way and BANG, there goes the hamstring, or the lower back or whatever else that you lifted with whilst you were not in your best line of power (because well…the weight you were moving was ever so light)!
I’ll leave you with this final thought:
They say a smart man is one who learns from his own mistakes, but a wise man is the one who learns from the mistakes of others…
Thank you for your time.
Fadi.
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