One of the most important things for your warmup is to mimic what you’ll be doing in your workout
That doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to do an exact replica of a bench press with no weights, but you do want to make sure that you’re warming up the joints in your body with some dynamic movements.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be all dynmaic, there’s plenty of need for static stretching to make sure that you hit the hamstring, the groin and so on, so this little routine has a bit of a mix of everything.
Jumping jacks
There’s a reason these bastions of the old school are still around, and it’s because they work. They also loosen up your groin, hips and shoulders for a whole range of exercises. The best way to do them is to do a few variants and make sure that you move your joints in different directions.
Start off with flings, where you cross your hands above your head and legs during the jumping jacks instead of just bringing them together to meet in the middle.
From there, move to the standard jumping jacks, and finish off with a seal jumping jack, where you cross your arms over in front of your chest, warming up your shoulders and pectoral muscles. This video has a few examples of the jumping jacks, as well as two other handy exercises.
Pogo jumps
Like it says on the tin, aim to jump up and down as if you were on a pogo stick. Start by doing twenty low jumps as quick as you can, then aim for twenty more but much higher, bringing your knees up and getting height on your jump. Aim to also make sure that you do them as if you were bouncing, rather than stopping in between jumps.
Leg kicks and hold
Lying on your back leave one leg on the ground and kick up as far as your hamstring flexibility will allow. Do ten on each leg, making sure you don’t raise your other leg off the ground.
Once you’ve finished that, kick the leg again, but this time hold it at the top of the movement by either grabbing behind the knee or holding your toes. Hold this position for 30 seconds on each leg.
One leg stiff legged deadlift
It’s a long title, and it’s difficult to do and keep your balance on. It’s shown at the end of the video above, and targets the glutes, hamstring, and back muscles. There should be a slight bend in your knee so that you can reach over, but make sure not to curve your shoulders and back over as you go forward, aim to keep the natural curvature of the spine as you go down.
Nutrition is always key to any workout, and for something great with a high protein content that’s also delicious, try Mooju chocolate milk. With over 10g of protein in a 250ml container, as well as carbohydrate. Mooju is a great choice for your workout.
Enjoy Mooju as part of a healthy balanced diet and active lifestyle.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
