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. 🙂