STOP THE ENDLESS FOAM ROLLING & CARDIO TO

WARM-UP! Take the smart

assessment survey to
get a training program
recommendation based
on your needs.

QUICK
ASSESSMENT

By Andy Van Grinsven

Kick Your Old Warm-Up To The Curb

Get stronger, faster, with a smarter approach to warm-ups.Its a case of same old, same
old for most people when it comes to warm-ups: foam rolling or riding a stationary bike.

But what if I told you there was a better way? A way that was faster, more speci c to your
needs as a lifter, and more fun?

What follows is a new warm-up that incorporates explosive power, mobility drills, and
stability drills. And you can get it done quickly, giving you more time to hit the stu that
matters most.

Hell. Ill even throw in something extra that you desperately need: excitement.

Admit it. Youre not always pumped to be in the gym. Sometimes youre dragging your feet
getting in the door. While your training session needs the nuts and bolts to get you to your
goal, your warm-up doesnt have to be the same ol mind-numbing routine. Keep things
fun and interesting, even playful.

Lets not forget that increased physical and psychological arousal will translate to an
improved lifting session. And if youre having more fun with your warm-ups and your
program, youll stick it out.
Popular Recent

The Warm-Up Beyond Foam Rolling Manual

For the longest time I swore by the foam roller, both as a coach and and lifter. Every Therapy & The
Personal
session started the same way: lie down on the oor and roll around on a dense ball or
Trainers Scope of
roller to try and undo all the knots and scar tissue to promote blood ow and improve Practice
tissue quality. May 25th, 2016

Before long, this simple oor routine took 15 to 20 minutes of my training sessions. This
4 Reasons
left less time to do actual hard work. While the foam roller has its place, its utility has been Tight
abused over the years. Hamstrings
Lead To Hamstring
Many lifters hop on the treadmill or stationary bike for ve minutes to get blood owing. Strains
June 22nd, 2016
No real harm can come from this, but what are the bene ts? Five minutes of low-intensity
aerobic exercise isnt specic in terms of substrate needs, range of motion, or muscle
The Truth
contraction speed. In other words, It doesnt really help help you lift heavy shit o the oor.
About Training
For Toned Arms
Lets face the real issue. Aside from being less than optimal, these traditional warm-ups are June 27th, 2016
uninspiring and boring.

Why Physical
Therapists
Should
A great warm-up res you up both Program Like Strength
Coaches
psychologically and physiologically. -Andy June 20th, 2016

Van Grinsven
CLICKTOTWEET

Articles by Category

A great warm-up res you up both psychologically and physiologically. You should be
SelectCategory
primed and ready to lift with gusto and intensity.

An Intelligent Results-Driven Warm Up Process Search any term, were

It all started with me borrowing ideas and methods from di erent camps and piecing them likely to have an article
together. I began focussing on what I really needed to get the most of my time in the gym. for it.

For a lifting session to be great, you need a few things from your warm-up:
Search...

Mobility, so that you can easily get into the required positions for our lifts.
Stability, so that you can transmit force through our body without risk of injury or
energy leaks. Find us on Facebook
A primed stretch reex, so you can move weights faster and more powerfully,
leading to better gains.
Safety, so you can come back and do it again another day.

How can you address these needs in the shortest time possible? How about a circuit that
covers all these and more?
The Dynamic Warm Up Program Dr.JohnRusin
Ill present it in its entirety rst, then explain it more in detail: LikePage
Home About Us Articles Fitness Programs Store Coaching Contact JRx INSIDER
1) KB Swings x 10 Bethefirstofyourfriendstolikethis

2) KB Squats x 5

3) Band Pull-aparts x 20

4a) Spiderman In-step x 5/side

4b) T-spine windmill x 5/side

4c) Cossack Squat x 5/side

Run the circuit three times, completing the swings, squats, and pull-aparts each round. In
round 1, do a Spiderman In-step x 5/side. In round two, complete T-spine rotation x 5/side.
In the last round, complete a Cossack Squat x 5/side.

After three rounds and about 5 minutes you will have:

1. Completed 30 explosive hip extensions

2. Completed 15 goblet squats
3. Activated core muscles (transverse abdominis, rectus abdominus, internal/external
obliques, and erector spinae)
4. Improved thoracic, hip, and ankle mobility

[Tweet If its important, do it every day. -Andy VanGrinsven ]

This warm-up not only provides the bene ts outlined above, but also gives us additional
opportunity to work on our technique without compromising our workouts.

Lets take a further look at the details:
The Kettlebell Swing
Kettlebell swing
Home About Us Articles Fitness Programs Store Coaching Contact JRx INSIDER

How to do it:

1. Set the bell out in front of your feet about arms length
2. Get tension in your lats by lightly pulling the bell towards you
3. Hike the bell as if youre a long snapper
4. As you feel the bell stretch your hips and glutes, explosively thrust your hips forward
thrusting the bell about eye-level
5. Pull the bell back down, playing chicken with your crotch, reload the hips and
explosively thrust again

The program starts with the kettlebell swing for several reasons.The rst is that it
represents a low-level explosive lift, which helps prime muscles to contract faster and
more forcefully later in our workout. Second, since the swing is in the hip-hinge family of

exercises, it provides additional practice to improve technique. A powerful hip hinge will
translate into improved performance for both the deadlift and athletic qualities like
sprinting, cutting, and jumping.

Home About Us Articles Fitness Programs Store Coaching Contact JRx INSIDER
The Kettlebell Goblet Squat
KB Goblet Squat

How to do it:

1. Grab the bell by the horns and set your feet in your squat stance
2. Brace your abs and sit between the legs, with your elbows sliding in between your
knees
3. Keep your upper back erect and core tight
4. Squeeze your glutes and drive out of the hole before doing it again

The KB Squat serves several purposes as well. It gives you rep practice to perfect your
technique, while improving both trunk stability (due to the position of the bell) and
hip/ankle/thoracic spine mobility. The idea is simple: proximal stability will provide better

distal mobility. A handful of goblet squats is plenty of stimulus to activate trunk muscles.
This e ectively takes the foot o the brakes, if you will, and allows you to sit deeper into
your squat with greater ease, improving your performance and reducing your risk of injury.

Home About Us Articles Fitness Programs Store Coaching Contact JRx INSIDER
Band Pull-Aparts
Band Pullaparts

How to do it:

1. Grab a band and hold it out in front of your with either an overhand or underhand
grip
2. Keeping arms straight, pull the band apart like youre trying to tear it
3. When the band touches your chest, return to start slowly and under control

Band pull-aparts help ght bad posture, build strength and mass in our posterior delt and
upper back, and keeps our shoulders movin and groovin well for the long-haul.

Spiderman In-Step w/Rotation
In Step with Rotation
 In Step with Rotation

Home About Us Articles Fitness Programs Store Coaching Contact JRx INSIDER

How to do it:

1. Start in push-up position

2. Bring one foot up and plant it just to the outside of your hand
3. Rotate towards the front leg and make a T with your body
4. Replace the leg and continue with the other side

The Spiderman In-step is a great catch-all mobility drill, providing not only a hamstring
stretch for the front leg, but a hip exor stretch for the trailing leg. With the added rotation,
you can further improve thoracic mobility and upper back posture.

T-Spine Windmill
T Spine Windmill

 Home About Us Articles Fitness Programs Store Coaching Contact JRx INSIDER

How to do it:

1. Pin a medicine ball or foam roller (not totally useless!) under your lower leg
2. Clasp hands together in front of you
3. Reach with the top hand before rotating up and over, like a windmill, to the other
side of your body
4. Close your book and perform the drill again

Thoracic spine mobility is emphasized in this drill, since most of us tend to lose our ability
to rotate through our upper backs due to poor posture at work or home. While there are
many alternatives, this one works best in my experience: If the client or athlete tries to
cheat the drill, the leg pinning the foam roller pops up. So cueing is much easier.
Additionally, the athlete can see improvement in this drill over time as he or she will be
able to keep their ngertips on the oor throughout the rotation.

Cossack Squat
Cossack Squat

 Home About Us Articles Fitness Programs Store Coaching Contact JRx INSIDER

How to do it:

1. Take a wide stance

2. Slide your hips towards one side of your body, then push the hips back
3. Sit back as far and as deep as you can
4. With the trailing leg, pull the toe up towards the ceiling
5. Push through the working leg back to start and go again on the other side

The cossack squat is a great drill because it not only provides hip mobility, but also gets us
out of the sagittal plane that we live in. You can easily regress this movement too, with the
addition of a squat rack or TRX to hang from.

The Reasoning Behind The Rep Scheme

This one is for coaches. Why do the good ones tend to use reps in multiples of ve?
Because its hard for a lifter to forget.

When you start adding 6s, 8s, and 10s, confusion sets in and you have a trainee whos
asking questions and not working.

How many sets and reps of this warm-up are up to you. I would keep it simple. Remember
that this is a warm-up. Breathless and sweaty is ne, but there is still a workout to be done.
Assign reps sparingly.
Be Better Than The Lazy Bike, Warm Up Intelligently
Lets recap: for our lifts to be stellar, we need a better and more comprehensive warm-up.
Home
We need mobility About
, stability Usexplosive
, and Articles
powerFitness Programsare
so our workouts Store and
eective Coaching
safe. Contact JRx INSIDER
We also need to spend as little time as necessary in order to get into the meat n potatoes
of our lifting session.

The above program is a great place to start. The KB swings and squats address explosive
hip extension, squat depth, core strength, and hip mobility in two drills.

The band pull-aparts serves as extra upper back pulling volume, while providing the
obvious bene ts of increased shoulder strength and improved posture through posterior
shoulder muscle activation.

The three mobility drills are some of my favorites and good catch-all drills. However there
are no hard and fast rules here. Experiment with dierent mobility drills based on your or
your clients needs, and adjust accordingly.

A nal note. Foam rolling or bike riding are far from useless in warm ups.This isnt an
either/or situation. Do like we all do in this industry: implement what is useful and discard
what is not.

About The Author

Andy Van Grinsven is a Nashville-based Personal Trainer and Strength Coach with a
Masters degree in Exercise Physiology and CSCS through the NSCA. He shows average
Janes and Joes how to leverage bars, kettlebells, and bodyweight to improve movement
quality, strength, and body composition. His training philosophy is to keep things simple,
progressive, and fun. When hes not training clients, hes nose-deep in a book or walking
his beloved dog, Jane. He loves BBQ and deadlifts, but only luke-warm to Nashvilles

country music scene.
 For more from Andy visit his website: AndyVanGrinsven.com

Home About Us Articles Fitness Programs Store Coaching Contact JRx INSIDER

I HAVE A FREE PRODUCT FOR YOU

6 Phases of the Perfect

Dynamic Warm Up
Go through the 6 Phases of my warm-up system & make sure you cover all the bases before your
workout. Completely FREE for you to download.

Name

Email

DOWNLOAD THE FREE BOOK

 Home About Us Articles Fitness Programs Store Coaching Contact JRx INSIDER

By Andy Van Grinsven | November 9th, 2016 | Performance, Strength Training, Workouts | 3 Comments

About the Author: Andy Van Grinsven

Related Posts

 Home About Us Articles Fitness Programs Store Coaching Contact JRx INSIDER

15 Best Exercises To Train How Strong Are You Really? Early Sport Specialization Is
Through Low Back, Knee & Do This Bodyweight Killing The Health of Our Kids

3 Comments

Anthony November 10, 2016 at 2:10 pm - Reply

This looks great; am looking forward to trying it. Would you add to or adjust
these for someone focussed on Olympic lifting? Many thanks.

Andy November 10, 2016 at 8:26 pm - Reply

Hey Anthony! Thanks for reading. The exercises and drills I picked are more
generic, meaning that they t most of the clients that I work with, which is
general population folks. I dont employ Olympic lifting personally, but Im
sure you could use a blend of both Olympic lifts, mobility drills, and
kettlebell drills into your warmup. Unless youre a purist in your approach
to tness, I say use a bit of everything to spice things up and keep things
fresh every now and then. It cant hurt so long as you know what youre
doing. Hope that helps

 Kyle November 14, 2016 at 5:05 pm - Reply

Awesome stu Andy. The warm-up hits all major muscle groups, systems, and
you Home
gave excellent
Aboutrationale
Us for each. Thanks
Articles Fitnessfor the post.
Programs Store Coaching Contact JRx INSIDER

Leave A Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required elds are marked*

Comment...

Name* Email* http://

POST COMMENT

DR. JOHN RUSIN RECENT TWEETS FIND US ON FOLLOW US ON

FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM
Hi, I'm Dr. John Rusin, owner of
John Rusin Fitness Systems.
Not all ankle mobility
issues are created
Dr.JohnRusin
20Klikes
@DRJOHNRUSIN
Intelligently Hardcore
I'm a physical therapist, equally. Heres how to
Strength &
Home About Us pinpoint
Articles your Programs
Fitness Store Coaching Contact JRx INSIDER
Performance |
strength coach, and
dysfunction origins & Coaching, Treating &
internationally recognized remediate them LikePage Managing the World's
tness expert and consultant Most Powerful
drjohnrusin.com/10-
Strength Athletes
who has had the privilege to exercises-t Bethefirstofyourfriendstolikethis
work with some of the worlds 1 hour ago
best athletes and most
passionate clients.

Can you do a single arm
push up & a pistol Dr.JohnRusin
squat? If so... how 1hr

many?! How do your "TheRoleofLowBarSquatsin

About numbers stack up ACLReconstructionRehab"
against the best byMichaelMashviaDr.John
Blog twitter.com/i/web/status/8 RusinWebsite
3 hours ago
Whenitcomestofixingthe Load More...
Store brokensystemwhichisACL
postoperativerehabilitation,the
Contact
Dont start your deadlift
session without rst
Follow on Instagram

doing this exercise. Its a

Returns and Refunds Policy game changer via
@T_Nation t-
nation.com/training/tip-
Privacy Policy
d
5 hours ago

Copyright 2016Dr. John Rusin. | All Rights Reserved | Assembled by idolon.us - Web Design & Development 1-617-755-7865EMAIL US