What Does a Foundry Warm Up Include?

“If you spend too much time warming up, you’ll miss the race. If you don’t warm up at all, you may not finish the race”- Grand Heidrich

You don’t need me to tell you that warming up before training is a good idea. The quote above, however, is very telling. Warm ups need to be effective, to the point and simple. There is sometimes a risk of paralysis by analysis when it comes to warm ups. Address the key areas, get a bit of a bead on, and prepare yourself for whatever your session starts with through some movement prep.

At Foundry we have 4 stages to our warm up before we get into the nitty gritty of strength training, or any personal training for that matter.

Pulse Raiser

As simple as it sounds, get some blood flowing. 3 minute ramp on the bike, 500m row, high knees on the spot. This acts not only as a way to increase blood flow, but also to mentally switch off from the day’s goings on and to get your head in the gym.

Mobility

Improving mobility/restoring adequate range of motion through our joints is incredibly important before we train. We work through a systemic approach moving up the body joint by joint as you can see in the video below we go ankle, knee, hip, spine, shoulder.

Stability / Activation

Being mobile without having stability in the right places is a recipe for disaster. “Core” and glutes get a big focus from us as they are very often fast asleep due to our largely sedentary lifestyle, and considering they play a vital part in stabilising the pelvis, it’s in our interest to wake them up.

Movement Prep

This comes just before the meat and bones of the workout and is more session specific. “Greasing the groove” if you like and becoming more efficient in the movement patterns that are just about to become challenged through load.

“What happens when you load a bad pattern? You get really good at sucking.”- Eric Cressey

Below is a video taking you through our “10 point warmup” covering the mobility and stability components I spoke about above.

Foundry Warm Up

Warm Up Complex 1

Warm Up Complex 2

Warm Up Complex 3

If you have any questions on the above or would like some advice on how we could help you with your fitness goal, don’t hesitate, visit our South East London gyms and try one of our semi private personal training sessions.

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