I started the year off on the right foot with a win at my first regatta of 2017!
My secret formula was my warmup. And now I'm not leaving winning to chance.
For years I believed that a proper warmup involved taking multiple repetitions of the sport at hand - layups, practice swings, rowing strokes. Follow that with some static stretching to loosen the muscles. Stick to that prescription and there's no way I'll get injured... right?!
I train and rehabilitate rowers but I also row competitively, so I took my own advice and followed tip #4 from my "Top 5 Tips To Win A Gold Medal": make your rowing warmup anything but rowing. I wrote a progressive warmup routine to prepare my body for battle. And do you know what happened? The moment I got in the boat I was ready for action, NOT just ready for my second warmup. Click play and give it a try!
Despite the incredible gains in sports performance knowledge readily available online, athletes following the more classic framework continue to be at risk for injury. And yes, those athletes are still out there.
You owe it to your body, your teammates and the time you've commited to sports excellence to execute a better warmup.
Whether you're stepping up to the plate, crouched at the blocks, sitting at the catch or anticipating the snap, if your pre-game warmup involves only some static stretching and the movements and activities you'll be doing for the game, then you're missing out... missing out on a high performance, more agile, and more rugged and injury resistant body.
From the physical therapist perspective, at its root the dynamic warmup is about injury prevention. But for the athlete, it's all about sports performance enhancement. As soon as the whistle blows, your dynamic warmup will have:
Activated your balance and position sense systems 👉👉👉 Keep you more stable and on your feet.
Sensitized your nervous system to "pre-tension" your muscles, making them more reactive and able to achieve maximum performance 👉👉👉 Make you more explosive.
Dilated your blood vessels to deliver more fuel, more efficiently to your muscles 👉👉👉 Open the floodgates to power your muscles with high-octane fuel.
Maximized the mobility of your joints, muscles and connective tissue for optimum flexibility 👉👉👉 Be more reactive and able to get back up and keep playing if you fall or take a hit.
The purpose of a dynamic warmup is to get your body systems ready for action the moment you begin play.
Before your next workout, and definitely before your next game or tournament, start your engines with a dynamic warmup routine much like the one I created above.