Anyone who has been involved in sports has some kind of mental association with warming up. My memories are mostly about running around the field and sitting down on the ground afterwards for some static stretches. The stretches were always the same, the hurdler-stretch and other reach-down movements. Generally speaking, I remember my youth sport warm-ups being boring, inefficient and not stimulating for the mind or the body. It was just something we had to do. In fact I believe now that the term “warm-up” is outdated as the pre-sport or pre-workout 토토 activity is about so much more than just “warming up.”
Active and dynamic warm-ups and movement preparation routines are replacing the old mentally and physically more passive warming-up practices. The general idea of (just) elevating the body temperature by slow jogging, followed by a few static stretches, is being revolutionized by a more focused and involved movement preparation.
An athlete spends between 10-20 minutes a day preparing the body for the competition or practice. This time accumulates slowly but surely and functions not only as a primer for the sport performance but as an opportunity to learn and develop various motor skills.
The activation of the movement system correctly prior to sport performance or practice has been found crucially important. We have been researching and developing optimal warm-up and movement preparation protocols for years.
2. 368 – The simple system of human movement
In order to re-produce a great warm-up that really works, we need some sort of a system. Without a pattern or a system, all of our warm-ups will be random and we will never be able to predict the outcome of the warm-up reliably.
The Dynamic Warm-Up Method aims at creating the desired physiological adaptation as reliable as possible every time. Our simplified concept of human movement helps us in approaching the warm-up systematically and comprehensively. This concept is called 368.
The 368-system gives a simplified biomechanical idea of human anatomy in relation to integrated movement. Learning more than 700 muscles with their functions in relation to everyday training seems like an impossible task for most of us. That is why observing the body in the following way can be helpful:
3 PLANES: The movement occurs in three planes, sagittal, frontal and transverse. In lame terms this translates into forward/backward, side to side and rotational movement.
6 STATIONS: The human body can be described in six levels or stations:
1. Foot and ankle
2. Knee
3. Hip
4. Lumbar spine
5. Thoracic spine
6. Cervical spine (*1)
8 CHAINS: The muscles and fascial components together form functional units that translate movement throughout the body and are structurally connected making the whole body into “one big muscle”. These chains are the front chain, back chain, lateral chains on the sides and the diagonal chains in the front and in the back. (*2)
The 368-concept helps us executing the warm-up systematically as well as in observing the movement in real-time. And how does the 368 actually do this?
- By reminding us to warm-up and activate the body in all three planes as all of the sports and activities occur in multi-planar environment.
- By making sure that each of the body parts have been “checked” and “turned on” the right way.
- By guiding us in terms of movement patterns instead of individual muscles.
3. “Turning on” the body-wide systems in the warm-up
Cardiovascular System
One of the main goals of warm up in sport practice has always been “to increase the core temperature”. That is what “warming up” sounds like anyway. Many functions of the body operate better as the internal temperature of the body rises as a result of physical activity. Stimulating the cardio-vascular system is most definitely a part of any warm-up protocol.
Neuromuscular System
The objective of the warm-up is to “start the engines” in terms of neurological and musculoskeletal system as well. This is where the old school warm-up often falls short as the optimal muscle activation will most likely not be a result from slow jogging and static stretches. Activating the nervous system means that we will optimize the sequence of how the muscles work together. Turning on the receptors requires motion. That is why sitting down to passively stretch your muscles is normally not the best approach to elevating acute performance.