Change Your Warm-up Forever
Change Your Warm-up Forever
Get Into the Flow
“Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” (Bruce Lee)
Besides being one bad mo-fo and having cheese gratin’ abs, Bruce Lee was also pretty smart.
He knew the importance of not being tied down to one form or to structured movement. Over the last several years the importance of a good warm-up, progression and regression exercise selection, and understanding how we all move, has been a top priority in the training programs for my athletes here at Diesel. After collaborating with Joe DeFranco and being awakened by the works of Steve Maxwell and Scott Sonnon, I now truly have a new sense of discovery when it comes to movement and movement quality.
No longer are my workouts or my workout prep work, restricted by conventional movements. Yes, it is true that structured warm-up exercises prepare you to train in structured strength training movement patterns. But what happens when we fall, we stumble or we’re required to stabilize, decelerate and movement outside of these patterns? Can we fully prepare ourselves for every situation? No, but we can improve our potential for a better outcome.
The Experiment
In the video below, we have a simple experiment.
Two very different warm-ups with the exact same exercises.
The exercise were: striders, push-up plus and glute bridges
In Workout 1, the exercises are performed as individual sets.
In Workout 2, the exercises are performed as an integrated flow.
What you’ll see is that the flow develops great coordination and work capacity. It also reintroduces fluidity of movement back into the warm-up. This is just one example, there are many more. In fact, every movement in the AMPED warm-up system can be linked together into hundreds of different flows. We also teach this killer technique, along with tons of other important rehab techniques in our renowned AMPED/POWER seminar series. One of the other lesser thought of benefits of flow is that it cuts your time for the warm-up down significantly.
The Truth Slaps You In The Face
Don’t wake up 20 years from now and be in my situation – fighting to keep your movement. Start now making your warm-up a priority and improving the fluidity of your movements. It is a skill and it still can be developed. Flow is ground-breaking and will benefit you the very first time you do it. Study the works of Steve Maxwell and Scott Sonnon because they are both pioneers in the area of flow.
And remember, be like water my friend.
PS> Steve Maxwell and I are hosting the 2nd Annual Advanced Strength and Mobility seminar on January 14, 2012 – you DON’T want to miss it!
UPDATE: FACEBOOK QUESTION
QUESTION:
“Awesome vid, coach. A question, though. Are you saying through this vid that “flow” style warmups rather than hitting 15 Pushup + then 10 Cat-Camels then some striders, etc? Or are “flow” style series’ just another thing we should incorporate more into our warmups? Thanks coach!” – Carlos
ANSWER:
@Carlos – no, you definitely don’t want to replace one for the other. I’m saying you don’t want to “lose” your ability to move. In my opinion, you need to do both to re-establish a good movement profile. It really is a reenforcement of the SAID principle. I’ve seen it a million times. Those who focus solely on strict movements – in their warm-up and workout – lose their ability to move freely, without restriction. Which is the definition of mobility. Be like water my friend. 🙂
By Smitty on December 5th, 2011
FREE DIESEL NEWSLETTER
- Discover Pain Free, Joint-Friendly Training
- Get Super Effective Workouts and Programs
- Inspirational Life Lessons Each Week
- Effective Habits For Busy Entrepreneurs
Smitty, great stuff! I like the idea and will play around with some of the movements I use as prep to see if some of them can be combined as well. Thanks again for all the helpful resources and info!
I see your SUNY Cortland T-shirt. I have been following your emails and videos for a couple years now. I am from Cortland NY, myself. I understand your gym is located in Elmira. I would love to meet you sometime and train at your gym.
So simple yet so misunderstood. I see so many guys putting all sorts of wraps and creams all over, then doing a couple static stretches then just start lifting. I love tumbling drills to warmup, forward-backward rolls etc. Creates great body awareness.
Oh Smitty Smitty–YOU ROCK! You are doing a Sun Salutation! (Your bridge is pretty much equivalent to a cobra)! Now you are truly on the light side. Yoga FLOW Movement. I learn a lot from you every day and every day confirms yoga and power/agility/weight training work great together. Come to a class anytime you are in Ontario. raging
Great stuff again Smitty. So great to see the integration of the two methods, not enough people are teaching this.
great info as usual smitty.
i do something very similar with naked get ups as the base movement. get ups alone really help you recharge your primal movement patterns, but it becomes even better when you’re able add movements from other influences. here’s an example of what i do;
prone 2 supine lower body roll left
prone 2 supine lower body roll right
skydiver
get up to elbow left
get up to elbow right
prone 2 supine upper body roll left
prone 2 supine upper body roll left
skydiver
get up: high hip to diver bomber push up lt
get up: high hip to diver bomber push up rt
……
the combinations you can come up with are endless, which will make your movement prep quick and effect. i love adding a few tablespoons of Diesel to my Hardstyle training. thanks brotha