Let’s be honest – when was the last time you did the all-important warm–up component before your workout?
Priming or the warm-up component is so important because it helps:
• Offset any stressors, tightness and restrictions from the past 12-24 hours
• Increase flow of fluids like blood, lymph and water
• Restore healthy movement to minimise injuries
• Allow the system to restore and pre-recover before you start your movements in the gym, outside on that run, or in that class
• Lift the mood
• Drive performance for that session
Let’s talk through an example:
You’re a new pickleball or padel enthusiast. You haven’t played the sport before, but everyone you know keeps raving about it. You get onto the court and suddenly realise that even though you’re having fun, your joints don’t feel great, and you are already feeling some tweaks and strains on your body.
There’s a reason why this sport has some of the highest injury rates in the world. The sport requires the ability to accelerate and decelerate quickly, significantly faster than tennis. The angles that your joints (ankle, knees and hips) are exposed to are significant and generally far outside the range of your normal activity in the gym or on the golf course.
Having a muscular system that slides and glides effectively is paramount to this sport. A body that doesn’t move well, is restricted in mobility, is dehydrated or is stressed can dramatically affect how prone you are to injury playing the sport.
This also applies to the gym, to a class, or on that treadmill. The body must be able to take on load and forces in multiple directions, or significantly increased loads compared to daily life. Running on a treadmill adds many times your bodyweight in force through your body than walking does.
Let’s add another important element that international educator and presenter Ian O’dwyer talks of “Emotion drives motion”.
So not only do we need to address the tissues of the body, the hydration, the stressors. We also need to address our mood or our emotion before we start to engage in any form of activity. “Stinking thinking can and will affect your tissues of the body.” How you are feeling emotionally will affect your nervous system and your cells, and we need these parts of the body to be performing at a high level before we move.
Legendary wellness educator Paul Chek from the Chek Institute has been showing for years from research and in his application with his clients that inflammation from lifestyle, food and other factors can shut down a lot of the nerves that help to stabilise the pelvis and the core – resulting in weaker strength and unstable joints that are paramount to movement and can possibly lead to injuries.
If you think of your warm-up phase as making the body mobile and stable, you will create a better outcome for performance, minimise injuries, and have a more enjoyable workout experience.
Here’s a breakdown of creating Mobility and Stability to prime your tissues, muscles and nervous system that will help with your workout:
• Breath Work – Simple box breathing or any breath work you like besides extensive breath holding (hypoxic) will calm the nervous system and help to circulate blood and drive your mood and emotions.
• Mobility – body weight movement, foam rolling, whole body vibration, percussion guns, and more will help to create space in and around your joints. It will push fluids and help to hydrate tissues and remove toxins.
• Stability – position holds, bands and cables will allow the body to reset its alignment and prepare the body for the movements you are about to do for your workout.
Ian O’dwyer also points out one important thing to note about Stability: “When you create a more mobile joint or work on mobility, the body then needs to reset or accommodate for that new increase in mobility or range of motion. What Mobility does is it allows the body to create some stability in that area of the body where you have just given it more mobility. If you create mobility but then do not add stability directly after, the body does not have stability in that new range of motion and could lead to an injury. Following up mobility with simple stability exercises is key.”
When it comes to Breath Work, two simple methods to use could be Box Breathing or Nose holds.
Box breathing is really simple but effective. Sit or lie down, breathe in for 5 seconds, hold for 5 seconds, breathe out for 5 seconds, hold for 5 seconds and then repeat – each time adding an extra second per cycle like 6-6-6-6, then 7-7-7-7.
In terms of nose holds, if you hold down your left nostril with your thumb and only breathe through the right nose slowly in and out for 2-3 minutes at a time, you will stimulate the sympathetic nervous system that wakes you up, drives the body into awareness and gives you energy. If you ever want to just calm down, reverse the nostril and block the right. This is a good one to use when trying to get to sleep.
Mobility can include many different techniques. It is anything that involves releasing, creating space around a joint and providing pressure to tissues to help them slide and glide. At PURE, we have mobility sticks, foam rollers, percussion guns, and the Power Plate that creates whole body vibration. All of these will help to create Mobility in an area of the body when used correctly. In a nutshell – creating mobility helps to hydrate tissues with the movement and the pressure, allow the tissues to reset back to normal alignment, and calm the nervous system driving the tightness or restriction in the first place.
As mentioned earlier, stability is used after you have created more mobility in a section of the body. It’s vital to create stability and reset the nervous system to the new range of motion you have created with your mobility exercises.
Applying simple Mobility and Stability movements into your priming or warm-up are crucial to enabling peak performance during your workout and avoiding injuries or disappointment for a workout that doesn’t go as planned.
Always check in with one of our PURE professionals if you’re looking for more mobility and stability exercises. Happy moving!
Whether you want to tone your body or pump up your cardio, harness the power and grit with PURE Fitness.
From private yoga to specialised classes, enjoy the ultimate yoga experience with PURE Yoga and lead happier, healthier, and more balanced lives.
From yoga to fitness, PURE Online provides scheduled and on-demand workout videos to practise anytime and anywhere.
noodfood offers only the good stuff — delicious and nutritious food and drinks including cold-pressed juices, raw foods and organic snacks to keep you happy and healthy.
Whether you want to tone your body or pump up your cardio, harness the power and grit with PURE Fitness.
From private yoga to specialised classes, enjoy the ultimate yoga experience with PURE Yoga and lead happier, healthier, and more balanced lives.
From yoga to fitness, PURE Online provides scheduled and on-demand workout videos to practise anytime and anywhere.
noodfood offers only the good stuff — delicious and nutritious food and drinks including cold-pressed juices, raw foods and organic snacks to keep you happy and healthy.
