5 Warm-up Moves to Get You Lifting Better

James Harris
Oct 3, 2016
4 min read

Look, I get it. You want to get in, lift some heavy weights, get a pump, look cool, stare at yourself in the mirror for a second, and get out.

That's cool and I can appreciate where you're coming from (I would too), but we should also consider how not cool you're going to look when you can't do the exercises properly and end up hurting yourself because your mobility sucks.

I care about you looking cool all the time, so I've created a simple and effective 5 exercise warm up routine you can use to prime your joints, get some extra blood flowing to those muscle and helpful you stay injury free while you get your pump on.

Next time you walk in the gym, finish your super awesome warm-up and then destroy your gym routine, you can look over your shoulder at all the jaws that have been dislocated from staring at the awesomeness that is you.

Cheesey, right?

Here we go:

1. Cat Camel Stretch

Thoracic mobility is an essential part of all movement in the gym. The rib cages affects the shoulder and hip positions respectively, which in turn affect the range of motion available during exercises like squatting, bench pressing, deadlifts, pull-ups, overhead pressing and rowing - you can see why it might be kind of a big deal.

By learning to understand the feeling of controlling your rib cage through flexion and extension, you can immediately start to improve your back squat, deadlift, pull-ups, and bench press - all while helping you minimize the risk of a shoulder or low back injury.

The implications of good spinal mobility is something I can discuss in a later article. It's a whole other topic that could take up a lot of space.

2. Hip Mobility Series

Here you'll be hitting almost all angles of the hip joint's movement capacity in a series using multi-directional active mobility. This one kind of speaks for itself. Hip mobility is important.

3. Band Shoulder Dislocations

This one is pretty straight forward. Most people sit at a desk or stand leaning over something. Meaning the rib cage is usually in a locked down position (not literally). This position limits thoracic extension (upper and mid back movement) meaning the shoulders internally rotate or in layman's terms - you slouch.

Shoulder dislocations do two things if done properly:

Improve thoracic mobility by helping you be conscious of your posture and how it affects your ability to move the band over your head and back

Improve shoulder mobility or movement of the arm bone in the socket (which you need for...everything)

Here's how you do it:

4. Ankle Dorsiflexion with Band Assist

(I didn't have a video of this, so I appropriated Dean Somerset's)

Most people have terrible ankle mobility - usually its a lack of dorsiflexion.

Here's where this comes in.

In order for you to get low in a squat, you need 3 things to happen:

Hip Flexion and Extension - Hip thrusting or pushing your butt in and out

Knee Flexion and Extension - Bending and straightening the knee

Ankle Plantar and Dorsi Flexion - Pushing the toes into the ground and pulling the toes towards the shin

Most people can plantar flex with ease, but dorsiflexion is another story. Want proof?

Get into the lowest possible squat you can and hold it for 3 minutes. The first thing you'll probably feel - in a bad way - if not your knees, is the front part of your shin burning like crazy. Those are you tibialis muscle or - your dorsiflexors.

These tend to cause some issues for people who are trying to get low on their squat or get their knees comfortably in the line with the bar on a deadlift.

Here's one way to make that uncomfortable feeling in the knee back off:

5. Cossack Squat

Lower body movement is primarily determined by the mobility available in your hips. For us to get you moving like Jagger, we need to learn to move like him.

He does cossack squats to get the femoral heads moving well before hitting the stage and collecting phone numbers.

Primary muscles used? All of them.

Primary area of mobility affected? Internal and external rotation of the hips as well your ability to drop it like it's hot on a squat, do the bend and snap on a deadlift (not literally, just figuratively) and of course, your ability to get low in the club.

You're probably asking yourself, "why are there two hip mobility exercises?"

Here's why:

One is them is just about getting the joints moving, the other (this one) is about using that range of motion in a controlled way. You take the mobility you gained from the hip mobility series and use them to control the cossack squat, which leads to better controlled depth in your squat.