How to warm up for anything
10/18/2022
Here at Yoga Daleville, we believe that challenge is an opportunity for growth. We embrace the challenge of exploring a greater diversity of movement patterns. Diversity brings security. While we expand our movement vocabulary over time, it is essential to prepare the body/mind for these new movements. Gotta get warmed up! Purposes of warming up include to improve performance and decrease the chance of injury.
Feet together with toes and heels touching. Evenly distribute the body weight on both feet, then ever-so-slightly bring the body weight back into the heels. The body weight should stay mostly back on the heels during the warm up, and yet your feet will remain flat on the floor with your toes relaxed.
Find your inner thighs, your quads, your hamstrings, glutes. A gentle contraction to stabilize the lower half of your body. You don't need to grit your teeth and go crazy tightening up the legs. It's just a gentle isometric contraction which will slowly increase the neuromuscular activity and keep the lower half of your body still while you breath in and out.
Now that the lower half of your body is set, let's continue working up. Suck your stomach in and tighten it up. This is going to contract the rectus abdominis, which prevents anterior pelvic tilt and it's going to contract the deepest muscle of the abdominal wall, the transverse abdominis, which will stabilize the lumbar and pelvic regions, and assist in forced respiration.
Think - long spine. Keep your chest up, spine straight, shoulders relaxed slightly back and not hunched up. Again, taking to heart your doctor's advice for good posture. Many people have a tendency of forward rounded shoulders and/or forward head position. Part of this warm up exercise is practicing good anatomical posture, so we don't want a hunchback, but we also want to ovoid overly retracting the shoulder blades together and creating unnecessary tension. If you are unsure at this point, have someone take a profile pic of your alignment. With good upper body posture (neutral shoulder and head position), the earlobe should align approximately over the acromion process.
This is where we pause and think about the beach. JK! Stay present. At this moment we are 100% concentrating on body positioning. Thoughts of past and future vanish. Instantly use your laser beam focus to notice your mind wandering, and direct it to your body. You are the director in this movie. Your body parts are the cast members, and they are horrible listeners. The director will have to constantly remind the cast members of their roles, so the director must stay alert in order to be aware of what's happening. Awareness is essential to mastering this warm up.
Now that the body is aligned well, you interlock your fingers and place them under the chin. Knuckles touching the chin, thumbs touching the throat. No need to squeeze the hands yet, it's just a gentle interlocked position. Right here the actors like to get out of hand, so the director (you) needs to give them laser beam reminders - weight in the heels, gently contract the thighs, hips, butt, stomach in, chest up, spine straight, shoulders relaxed.
Stomach in, exhale all the air out of your lungs. Inhale slowly and steadily through the nose to a count of 6 seconds. Simultaneously bring the elbows out then up to the sides of your head then slightly above that if you can. Keep your head down. During this first big deep inhale, your head doesn't move. Chin stays down. Palms will come apart but the fingers remain interlocked with knuckles touching the chin. Elbows will reach the highest point as your lungs completely fill with air. Palms will face down and maybe a little out to the sides as your elbows go up.
Exhale slowly and steadily through the mouth to a count of 6 seconds. As you exhale, slowly and gently pushing your knuckles against your chin, bring your chin up and head back like you are trying to look directly above you in the sky. If you have good range of motion in your neck, look back a little further so your head goes all the way back. Simultaneously bring your palms closer together and your 2 elbows together. Elbows should come together away from your chest at the exact same time your lungs become empty. Your head is all the way back, eyes open. Getting the time dialed in will take some practice so don't be too critical of yourself. This will all become 2nd nature with time and effort.
As you begin your 2nd inhale, very slowly bring your head back down to where it started. Use the FULL 6 seconds to bring your chin down, elbows up, full lungs. Roughly chin parallel to the floor, knuckles w/chin, thumbs w/throat, weight on heels, stomach in, chest up, spine straight, eyes always open. It's important to not bring the chin down too quickly or fill the lungs too quickly. Part of the fun is achieving that perfect synchronization. Elbows reach the highest point the same time lungs reach full capacity. If you're lucky you might feel a mild finger stretch at the top of the inhale.
Keep in mind as you are breathing slowly in and out, you want to use your throat to slightly restrict the airflow, so it's an even flow. Some people make a lot of noise. It could sound like a snoring sound or the smooth rushing sound of airflow while driving with your windows down. I've seen many people perform this warm up breathing exercise quite effectively without making much sound. So don't worry about the sound of it too much. The important thing is to use the full 6 counts steadily and use your throat for pacing purposes, to keep it steady, slow and rhythmic.
As the cast members become more disciplined, the director won't have to micromanage as much. This means the director can focus more on each breath becoming deeper than the one previous, and less on bringing the body weight to the heels (because it's already there).
By the time you get to the 8th or 9th breath, the internal warmth allows you to start to work at bringing in more air by expanding the lungs towards the end of that 6 count. When you think your lungs are full, try to squeeze IN a tiny bit more air. In the process, you'll be strengthening the diaphragm, improving your aerobic capacity, and increasing your focus.
Even after many years of stage acting, broadway, t.v., commercials, movies, and cameos, some actors will still need micro managing. The director gets paid the big bucks for a reason! You are going to need to stay alert and aware of the abdominal muscles wanting to relax. Don't let them! Keep them in throughout the whole breathing exercise. Also, notice if you start to backward bend or hunch forward. Only the arms and head should be moving during the deep breathing. Naturally, the rib cage will go up as the lungs expand, but still you will consciously stabilize the torso. Over time, the director should develop an efficient mental scan to assure the foundation remains strong during each breath.
How many of these breaths should you do? That's really up to you in the moment for what you need for whatever activity you are preparing for. In the yoga room, we usually do 2 sets of 10. If I'm going swimming, I'll often go in the sauna and perform 3 sets of 5. I'm then easily able to hold my breath for 25 meters while I'm 100% focused on swimming form. If I feel rushed or agitated and I really am short on time, I might do 3 or 4 of these deep breaths with the best form/alignment possible, and it puts me in such a better frame of mind. Experiment for yourself. Make it a daily habit. It's only 2 to 6 minutes.
Any exercise where you will be using your neck, arms or shoulders, is going to be a great starting point to begin generating that internal warmth you need and get you in the best headspace for proper form. If you are new to working out and about to meet with a personal trainer, do pranayama breathing before you even show up. It is great mental and physical preparation for anything where you need executive function. That top-down focus enables you to learn! This is an act of self love. You are beginning to see yourself as someone with self discipline, able to control a bodily function that is automatic for most of your life.
As you can see, my form isn't perfect, but the good news is you don't have to have perfect form to make this warm up super beneficial. If you've had a tough day, try 12 or 15 slow breaths right before you sit down to watch your favorite t.v. Then mute the commercials and try a few more deep breaths. Congratulate yourself when you make a perfectly steady, deep breath. Give yourself a pat on the back for learning to breath deeper than before, with your stomach in. Love yourself for being aware of your posture for a few minutes.
If you are a runner, try pranayama breathing before your other normal running warm up exercises. It can't hurt. It's only gonna help. I've had my best results on race day when I performed pranayama breathing first.
Final tips: Slower is Better! In a world where we thrive on getting stuff done, take your time. Breath the full six seconds in, six seconds out. You might begin to experience the desire to experiment with longer or shorter breaths. Please do! Take note of how you feel. Do your thoughts speed up or slow down? Is your pulse increasing? Notice what's happening in the body mind. 6 seconds is a great guideline to start. View the exercise as complementary to what comes after.
The main goals of this breathing exercise: To expand your lung capacity, increase your breathing efficiency, improve your posture, increase your awareness, gain more energy, improve brain function, slow a racing mind, and be happy. Sounds like an amazing way to warm up!
There are so many useful examples of pranayama breathing. TED talks, testimonials, youtube videos. And now that you see how much I've overhyped the benefits using of pranayama breathing as a warm up for yoga and non-yoga related activities, you might be wondering, is there any scientific evidence or research to back up these bold claims? Maybe so, maybe not. It doesn't really matter, because it's free, it takes only a few minutes, it has no negative side effects, and no bad companies are making a profit from you breathing deeply.
"There is no way to happiness, for happiness itself is the way"
Email me for a video of me pranayama breathing. Send me videos of your warm up!
According to the American Council on Exercise: "To most effectively stretch a muscle, intramuscular temperature should be increased prior to stretching...Increasing the temperature enhances the ability of collagen and elastin components within the musculotendinous unit to deform and the ability of the GTOs to reflexively relax through autogenic inhibition...The optimal temperature...appears to be 103degrees F."
A common way to reduce tissue viscosity is self-initiated active movement. But there are a million+ ways you can do that. Where should you start?
Don't dive in yet. We want to find the sweet spot between increasing the body's core temperature but not causing fatigue. We also want to prepare the mind for top-down focus so we can make the most of the activity that we about to pursue. We should also be open to the idea that the most beneficial warm up for our chosen activity could include several complimentary components.
Don't dive in yet. We want to find the sweet spot between increasing the body's core temperature but not causing fatigue. We also want to prepare the mind for top-down focus so we can make the most of the activity that we about to pursue. We should also be open to the idea that the most beneficial warm up for our chosen activity could include several complimentary components.
A lot of people choose a dynamic warm up, or walking or some light jogging or cycling or jumping jacks or (insert your favorite warm up here). Depending on what you are preparing for, these might be great, but let's improve on that.
What if we start with a warm up that is actually healthy for our bones, joints, heart, lungs, brain, muscles, fascia, endocrine glands, respiratory system, central nervous system, circulatory system, immune system, and spine? And what if this warm up is zero impact? What if we could perform this warm up without moving our feet while practicing good posture? What if this warm up could help us increase our ability to focus? What if we chose a warm up that could help us breath better? What if we could do this warm up in the shower or the gym or in the office or the sauna or the pool or at the start line of a race? What if we could complete this effective warm up in under 6 minutes?
Sounds great, right? Checks all the boxes for a useful warm worth trying a few thousand times! Well guess what? We do it in every yoga class! In the Bikram yoga community, it's called Pranayama Breathing, and I'm going to give you detailed, how-to instructions right here in this blog post.
What if we start with a warm up that is actually healthy for our bones, joints, heart, lungs, brain, muscles, fascia, endocrine glands, respiratory system, central nervous system, circulatory system, immune system, and spine? And what if this warm up is zero impact? What if we could perform this warm up without moving our feet while practicing good posture? What if this warm up could help us increase our ability to focus? What if we chose a warm up that could help us breath better? What if we could do this warm up in the shower or the gym or in the office or the sauna or the pool or at the start line of a race? What if we could complete this effective warm up in under 6 minutes?
Sounds great, right? Checks all the boxes for a useful warm worth trying a few thousand times! Well guess what? We do it in every yoga class! In the Bikram yoga community, it's called Pranayama Breathing, and I'm going to give you detailed, how-to instructions right here in this blog post.
If you have never done this before, prepare for awesomeness...and maybe feeling a little weird at first. But a warm up that is this beneficial deserves some attention to detail so you can use it most effectively. Please set aside a little bit of time to understand what you are doing during this warm up. It will pay dividends later.
Full disclosure: you can use this for a warm up before any activity such as running, biking, swimming, lifting, gymnastics, pole vaulting, talking, giving a speech, working, typing, coding, gaming, playing sports, watching t.v., playing poker, cleaning, organizing, entertaining, meditating, disc golf, and especially shot putting...and it will potentially enhance the activity!
Ok, let's begin!
Ok, let's begin!
Feet together with toes and heels touching. Evenly distribute the body weight on both feet, then ever-so-slightly bring the body weight back into the heels. The body weight should stay mostly back on the heels during the warm up, and yet your feet will remain flat on the floor with your toes relaxed.
Find your inner thighs, your quads, your hamstrings, glutes. A gentle contraction to stabilize the lower half of your body. You don't need to grit your teeth and go crazy tightening up the legs. It's just a gentle isometric contraction which will slowly increase the neuromuscular activity and keep the lower half of your body still while you breath in and out.
Now that the lower half of your body is set, let's continue working up. Suck your stomach in and tighten it up. This is going to contract the rectus abdominis, which prevents anterior pelvic tilt and it's going to contract the deepest muscle of the abdominal wall, the transverse abdominis, which will stabilize the lumbar and pelvic regions, and assist in forced respiration.
Think - long spine. Keep your chest up, spine straight, shoulders relaxed slightly back and not hunched up. Again, taking to heart your doctor's advice for good posture. Many people have a tendency of forward rounded shoulders and/or forward head position. Part of this warm up exercise is practicing good anatomical posture, so we don't want a hunchback, but we also want to ovoid overly retracting the shoulder blades together and creating unnecessary tension. If you are unsure at this point, have someone take a profile pic of your alignment. With good upper body posture (neutral shoulder and head position), the earlobe should align approximately over the acromion process.
This is where we pause and think about the beach. JK! Stay present. At this moment we are 100% concentrating on body positioning. Thoughts of past and future vanish. Instantly use your laser beam focus to notice your mind wandering, and direct it to your body. You are the director in this movie. Your body parts are the cast members, and they are horrible listeners. The director will have to constantly remind the cast members of their roles, so the director must stay alert in order to be aware of what's happening. Awareness is essential to mastering this warm up.
Now that the body is aligned well, you interlock your fingers and place them under the chin. Knuckles touching the chin, thumbs touching the throat. No need to squeeze the hands yet, it's just a gentle interlocked position. Right here the actors like to get out of hand, so the director (you) needs to give them laser beam reminders - weight in the heels, gently contract the thighs, hips, butt, stomach in, chest up, spine straight, shoulders relaxed.
Stomach in, exhale all the air out of your lungs. Inhale slowly and steadily through the nose to a count of 6 seconds. Simultaneously bring the elbows out then up to the sides of your head then slightly above that if you can. Keep your head down. During this first big deep inhale, your head doesn't move. Chin stays down. Palms will come apart but the fingers remain interlocked with knuckles touching the chin. Elbows will reach the highest point as your lungs completely fill with air. Palms will face down and maybe a little out to the sides as your elbows go up.
Exhale slowly and steadily through the mouth to a count of 6 seconds. As you exhale, slowly and gently pushing your knuckles against your chin, bring your chin up and head back like you are trying to look directly above you in the sky. If you have good range of motion in your neck, look back a little further so your head goes all the way back. Simultaneously bring your palms closer together and your 2 elbows together. Elbows should come together away from your chest at the exact same time your lungs become empty. Your head is all the way back, eyes open. Getting the time dialed in will take some practice so don't be too critical of yourself. This will all become 2nd nature with time and effort.
As you begin your 2nd inhale, very slowly bring your head back down to where it started. Use the FULL 6 seconds to bring your chin down, elbows up, full lungs. Roughly chin parallel to the floor, knuckles w/chin, thumbs w/throat, weight on heels, stomach in, chest up, spine straight, eyes always open. It's important to not bring the chin down too quickly or fill the lungs too quickly. Part of the fun is achieving that perfect synchronization. Elbows reach the highest point the same time lungs reach full capacity. If you're lucky you might feel a mild finger stretch at the top of the inhale.
Keep in mind as you are breathing slowly in and out, you want to use your throat to slightly restrict the airflow, so it's an even flow. Some people make a lot of noise. It could sound like a snoring sound or the smooth rushing sound of airflow while driving with your windows down. I've seen many people perform this warm up breathing exercise quite effectively without making much sound. So don't worry about the sound of it too much. The important thing is to use the full 6 counts steadily and use your throat for pacing purposes, to keep it steady, slow and rhythmic.
As the cast members become more disciplined, the director won't have to micromanage as much. This means the director can focus more on each breath becoming deeper than the one previous, and less on bringing the body weight to the heels (because it's already there).
By the time you get to the 8th or 9th breath, the internal warmth allows you to start to work at bringing in more air by expanding the lungs towards the end of that 6 count. When you think your lungs are full, try to squeeze IN a tiny bit more air. In the process, you'll be strengthening the diaphragm, improving your aerobic capacity, and increasing your focus.
Even after many years of stage acting, broadway, t.v., commercials, movies, and cameos, some actors will still need micro managing. The director gets paid the big bucks for a reason! You are going to need to stay alert and aware of the abdominal muscles wanting to relax. Don't let them! Keep them in throughout the whole breathing exercise. Also, notice if you start to backward bend or hunch forward. Only the arms and head should be moving during the deep breathing. Naturally, the rib cage will go up as the lungs expand, but still you will consciously stabilize the torso. Over time, the director should develop an efficient mental scan to assure the foundation remains strong during each breath.
How many of these breaths should you do? That's really up to you in the moment for what you need for whatever activity you are preparing for. In the yoga room, we usually do 2 sets of 10. If I'm going swimming, I'll often go in the sauna and perform 3 sets of 5. I'm then easily able to hold my breath for 25 meters while I'm 100% focused on swimming form. If I feel rushed or agitated and I really am short on time, I might do 3 or 4 of these deep breaths with the best form/alignment possible, and it puts me in such a better frame of mind. Experiment for yourself. Make it a daily habit. It's only 2 to 6 minutes.
Any exercise where you will be using your neck, arms or shoulders, is going to be a great starting point to begin generating that internal warmth you need and get you in the best headspace for proper form. If you are new to working out and about to meet with a personal trainer, do pranayama breathing before you even show up. It is great mental and physical preparation for anything where you need executive function. That top-down focus enables you to learn! This is an act of self love. You are beginning to see yourself as someone with self discipline, able to control a bodily function that is automatic for most of your life.
As you can see, my form isn't perfect, but the good news is you don't have to have perfect form to make this warm up super beneficial. If you've had a tough day, try 12 or 15 slow breaths right before you sit down to watch your favorite t.v. Then mute the commercials and try a few more deep breaths. Congratulate yourself when you make a perfectly steady, deep breath. Give yourself a pat on the back for learning to breath deeper than before, with your stomach in. Love yourself for being aware of your posture for a few minutes.
If you are a runner, try pranayama breathing before your other normal running warm up exercises. It can't hurt. It's only gonna help. I've had my best results on race day when I performed pranayama breathing first.
Final tips: Slower is Better! In a world where we thrive on getting stuff done, take your time. Breath the full six seconds in, six seconds out. You might begin to experience the desire to experiment with longer or shorter breaths. Please do! Take note of how you feel. Do your thoughts speed up or slow down? Is your pulse increasing? Notice what's happening in the body mind. 6 seconds is a great guideline to start. View the exercise as complementary to what comes after.
The main goals of this breathing exercise: To expand your lung capacity, increase your breathing efficiency, improve your posture, increase your awareness, gain more energy, improve brain function, slow a racing mind, and be happy. Sounds like an amazing way to warm up!
There are so many useful examples of pranayama breathing. TED talks, testimonials, youtube videos. And now that you see how much I've overhyped the benefits using of pranayama breathing as a warm up for yoga and non-yoga related activities, you might be wondering, is there any scientific evidence or research to back up these bold claims? Maybe so, maybe not. It doesn't really matter, because it's free, it takes only a few minutes, it has no negative side effects, and no bad companies are making a profit from you breathing deeply.
"There is no way to happiness, for happiness itself is the way"
Email me for a video of me pranayama breathing. Send me videos of your warm up!