Boot camp Melbourne

Gone are the days where we see professional athletes standing on the fence holding a sustained hamstring stretch prior to battle. Warming up has become an art in itself, facilitated by the strength and conditioning staff at an elite level.

For the rest of us average Joe weekend warriors, it’s up to us to ensure we complete an adequate, tailored warm up prior to pulling on the footy boots or cross trainers for a run around the tan.

Generally speaking, your warm up should last for a quarter of the time you exercise. For example, a 2 hour hockey match should start with a 30 min warm up, while you should warm up for 10 mins before a 40 minute run.

Your warm up should consist of various movement patterns specific to your sport. A typical warm up for a football match will involve some light jogging, dynamic hamstring, calf, quadriceps, hip and lower back stretches, bounding drills, agility and running drills and skill sets.

Dynamic stretching involves taking a muscle through its stretch range repeatedly, as opposed to a sustained hold. This can involve leg swings, walking lunges and groin squats. Studies show that sustained stretching actually reduces the ability of a muscle to produce power, detracting from your performance and having no effect on injury prevention.
An example warm up for a 30 min run might involve 5-10 minutes of dynamic stretching combined with some skipping and bounding drills. It’s imperative you ensure a gradual progression through your warm up and a smooth transition into the more explosive demands of competition.

Injury occurs when explosive movements are attempted without getting adequate perfusion (blood supply) to the muscle or activating pre-programmed motor patterns. The purpose of implementing movement patterns that are similar to the sport you’re doing is to ‘warm up’ the nervous system. It’s like opening a computer program. The body needs to connect its neural pathways from brain to muscle and vice versa to activate a pre-programmed pattern of movement.

Once the pathways are activated, your brain can exert much faster reactive control over your muscles in vulnerable situations (ie. ankle rolls).

If you have a pre-existing injury, warming up may take a different course. It may include some hands on massage or mobilisation. A rehabilitating muscle strain might involve some scar massage/release work prior to a graded warm up. A grumbling Achilles tendinopathy may require 10 min of tendon mobilising and some deep heat.

Obviously, if you do have an injury, it’s important to consult your physiotherapist about appropriate modalities and levels of exercise. Sticking to a strategic dynamic warm up that incorporates movement patterns specific to your sport and AVOIDS dynamic stretching will go a long way towards preventing further injury prevention and keep you in competitive shape longer.

Shane O’Sullivan

Sports Physiotherapist
Prahran Sports Medicine Centre