You’re in the zone for a great workout. Having spent 30 minutes selecting the perfect combination of upbeat tunes to keep your motivation levels sufficiently high, you’re ready. Ready to sweat like a champion. Ready to show your body who’s boss and push the limits of physical endurance to a whole new level. “Watch out [insert name of super fit celebrity you idolise – The Rock?!] I’m coming for you” you enthusiastically proclaim. Time to make this workout your b*tch.

I love your passion. You’re energy is infectious – have you tried training with a friend? You could really help push each other even harder [insert shameless plug for previous blog post here]. But before you go all gung ho into the best workout of your life, ease it back slightly and consider your warm up.

I’ve addressed the importance of a good warm up before (see an earlier blog – read them all they’re great!), and I’m willing to sound like I’m repeating myself because it really is a vital and overlooked part of a good workout. A warm up is designed to increase blood flow to your muscles and raise your heart rate so that your body is fully prepared for exercise. Without a thorough warm up you significantly increase the risk of injury, as well as reducing the chance of optimising performance. A good warm up should incorporate all muscle groups that will be exposed to exercise. It should suitably prepare your muscles for the rigors they are about to be put under. Added to this, your joints should be steadily mobilised and freed off.

Sounds complicated right? Really doesn’t have to be. Infact, in many ways the simpler the better. You don’t have to spend hours warming up. It shouldn’t dominate your whole workout. Five minutes of a full body sequence of multiple moves is perfectly adequate to get you ready to rock the rest of your workout. The below video is an example of a few moves put together in a simple sequence to steadily warm up your joints and muscles. Try 10 repetitions of each move (I’ve demonstrated 2 or 3 reps each). I’ve used a weighted medicine ball – if you don’t have one a football or anything suitable works as a replacement).

Once completed, turn it up to 11 and crush that workout!