What is the best warm up for a training session? Stretching your hamstrings and doing arm circles? Foam rolling? Hopping on a stationary bike? Is the best warm up the same for everyone? Spoiler alert, the answer is no. Every athlete’s body is very different and can be considered on a mobility – stability continuum.
Breaking down each component of this continuum, mobility is the potential for motion of a body segment and the ability to produce that motion through a full range. Simply put, mobility is movement potential. Mobility includes muscle extensibility, connective tissue flexibility and joint mechanics. These factors are influenced by the nervous system, which is why sometimes demonstrating your full mobility is not always possible – especially under heavy load, stress, or fatigue. Stability is the control of the mobility factors. Stability does not necessarily mean strength – the ability to produce force, which is developed by progressive lifting of heavy barbells. Stability is more about the timing of movement strategies. This is a skill that is developed over time with focused practice. Being able to maintain and move through the postures and positions that weightlifting requires can be thought of as stability, with the amount of weight the athlete is able lift being a measure of his or her strength.
It is common for athletes to spend significant amounts of time trying to improve mobility when the limiting factor may be stability. These are times when joints and muscles feel or appear “tight,” but stretching is not effective or lasting. This chronic perception of tightness may actually be sent down from the nervous system as a way to protect a lifter from a position where they lack stability. An example of this would be if an athlete is unable to squat below parallel, but demonstrates full passive hip, knee, and ankle range of motion. The central nervous system forces the athlete to stop at whatever depth they can control, to avoid falling on their butt because they lack stability in a deep squat position. It might not mean that the athlete is “tight,” but that they simply cannot coordinate the joint angles and muscle levers in that specific position. Their timing of movement strategies is off, and they have not developed the skill of full depth squatting.
What does all this have to do with warming up? Each athlete has different factors influencing their ability to perform a skill. Think of the “warm up” as more than just increasing blood flow and body temperature. It is priming the body for the specific movement it is about to perform.
So how do you determine what the best warm up is for each individual athlete? Here is an example of why individualization is important. A 250lb football player and a 110lb gymnast may come to you with identical looking squats - unable to squat below parallel and unable to keep their chest upright but could fall on vastly different points within the mobility-stability continuum, meaning the strategies to address these perceived limitations may be much different for the two athletes despite the issues appearing similar. If the movement is not broken down further, it is difficult to differentiate between mobility and stability needs and recommend the appropriate corrections or barbell variations.
To minimize the guess work, screen general movement patterns first, then, if necessary, assess to further differentiate between mobility and stability needs. Screens and assessments are about learning the body’s individualities – how it works and how it moves. Not everyone will move exactly the same. And not everything is a problem. If a joint doesn’t go in a certain place, maybe it’s just a matter of anatomy and a simple modification can be used with respect to that. The purpose is to improve efficiency by knowing what needs work AND what doesn’t.
Back to our original question: is stretching a waste of time? It depends where the athlete falls on the mobility-stability continuum. If the athlete is far over on the mobility side of the continuum, stretching might be a waste of time because they have adequate mobility. Stability drills would be more beneficial to allow the athlete to get into the desired positions. If the athlete falls far on the stability side, stretching to improve mobility might be more beneficial to help them get into the desired positions.
There is no single best warm up for a training session. The best warm up should be individualized to each athlete. Therefore, screening and assessing is vital. In the football player versus gymnast squat example, if you don’t screen and assess, you don’t know how to improve their movements and prime them for training. You might assume that the gymnast has tight hips and have them spend time every day stretching when they truly have full hip mobility. This athlete will continue to feel “tight” in the bottom of a squat, despite stretching every day.
To dive a bit deeper into this example, if we performed a squat screen on these two athletes, and they are not able to meet the passing criteria, an assessment of ankle mobility and hip mobility would be the next step. Let’s say the gymnast is unable to meet the squat criteria but demonstrates full ankle and hip mobility upon assessment. This athlete has the required mobility and would therefore benefit more from improving her stability through unloading a body weight squat with some type of counterbalance, to build stability and proper squat technique. Holding a weight in front as in a goblet squat serves a counterbalance and usually allows the athlete to sit deeper into a squat and maintain a more upright torso. The athlete would be instructed to hold the squat position with the weight for about 20 seconds or as long as they can, and fight for proper positioning. Two quality sets prior to lifting would be a good primer. The progression from this would be to use a lighter and lighter weight, and eventually no weight, until the athlete can maintain a proper squat position without assistance.
Now let’s say the football player is also unable to meet the squat criteria, and upon assessment he does not have adequate ankle mobility but does have full hip mobility. When you elevate this athlete’s heels, he is able to perform a beautiful squat and meet all the passing criteria. This athlete would benefit from ankle mobility drills because you found a mobility limitation and confirmed that with the heels elevated, he is able to perform a solid squat. This athlete would be instructed in an ankle mobility drill with the knee bent, since this is specific to the squat position. An example would be standing knee to wall ankle dorsiflexion, or foot propped up on a bench with either a kettlebell on the knee for over pressure or a band to assist in joint mechanics. Two sets of 8-10 quality repetitions before lifting should help this athlete achieve better squat positioning within the lifting session. This is a simplified example of two athlete’s movement patterns appearing similar, but the underlying reason for the limitations is different.
Screening and assessing takes time and energy, but it will save time and enhance performance in the long run. The athlete will know their specific deficits and how to address them. They will know if they should be stretching or doing something to improve their stability to prime themselves for training. Being this intentional will undoubtedly enhance performance. The same principle that applies to sport specific training should apply to the warm up - everything with a purpose.