All previous [Concept Wednesdays](http://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/weekly/conceptwednesday)

Today we'll be discussing *Warming Up*. Kindly, fluffily written by /u/kayetech

Warming up is an important part of each training session. A proper warm up will allow you to perform better during your training session, and can help to prevent injuries.

**Benefits of a Good Warm Up**

* Gives you time to mentally focus on the training about to be performed, switch from "everyday mode" to "workout mode"
* Elevates your body temperature and heart rate
* Prepares your muscles, connective tissue, and joints for the specific tasks in that training session
* Time to check over your body and use the concepts from the autoregulation post to adjust the training plan as necessary

**Things to include in a Warm Up:**

* Easy movements to work out any stiffness in the joints and muscles - Focus on the range of motion you move through and where you feel tight
* If you have any movement restrictions that are going to get in the way of your workout (i.e you will go into that ROM during that workout) do what you need to do to remove or lessen those restrictions
* Full body movements to elevate temperature and heart rate
* Easier progressions of the exercises you are about to perform
* Pre-hab work (I use rotator cuff exercises as part of my warm up instead of during cool down. made a huge difference in my performance and recovery from my shoulder injury)
* Any activation work you need to include, such as a glute activation drill before squats, or lat activation before pull ups

**Things to Avoid:**

* Overdoing the static stretching. Some people will cite a loss of force production in stretched muscles, as you attempt to overcome your flexibility limitations by fatiguing the stretch reflex and contraction potential of the muscles and/or relaxing the muscles (all this should only occur if you do protracted stretching of one muscle - 5+ minutes), but mainly, you aren't going to be warm after doing 5-10 minutes of this.
	* If you do static stretching, make sure to increase blood flow with general movement again.
* Overdoing *Contract-Relax Stretching*. Basically, if you're doing CR stretching properly, you should be heavily working out and fatiguing the muscles, which will make your workout pretty hard.
* No high power movements. Box jumps, sprinting and Olympic lifting will get your heart rate up, but they're something to do *after* your warm-up and only if you program them in. Part of the warm up is just dangerous.
* Just keep it pretty easy. In regards to the beginner routine, we see a lot of questions regarding doing the bodyline drills being very taxing to do the 60 seconds, and not being able to complete the workout. The bodyline drills are part of the warm up, and should not be overly taxing. If you find them hard, do an easier variation and/or for a shorter time.

**Examples:**

*Example bwf warm up:*

*Push day* - OAPU, RTO dips, L-sit, HSPU

*Warm up* - joint rotations, jump rope, up dog/down dog, push ups, support hold, p-bar dips, compression work/v-snaps

*Example DL day warm up:*

joint rotations, leg swings, unweighted squats, pull ups, DL w/ light weight

Time: 5-15 minutes on average

**Resources:**