How to sequence your exercise and get the most out of every workout (4 minute read)

Warm up. Work out. Cool down.

We’ve been approaching exercise this way for a long time, and for good reason — it works.

At least, in theory.

In practice, our busy lives can push us to cut back on things that we perceive as less important or beneficial. When it comes to exercise, this often means we gloss over the beginning and end.

Exercises that don’t make us sweat can feel less relevant to our overall goals, so it’s easy to justify skimping out. We prioritise the “burn” because it’s usually the part of a workout when we feel like we’re getting the most benefit.

And that’s understandable. It’s hard not to associate warm ups with high school gym class, where you may have prepared for everything with the same light jog, followed by whatever stretches you thought made it look like you knew what you were doing.

These days, we usually don’t have a coach pushing us through the motions, and we all want the most bang for our buck. So if a warm up feels detached from the exercise we’re after, there’s a good chance we won’t give it the time of day.

But — done right — warm ups are much more than just a way to prevent injury and ramp up for the exercise ahead.

In recent years, we’ve come a long way in our understanding of the many benefits of a proper warm up, and how best to achieve them.

In general, good warm ups do 3 things really well:

1. Stimulate your nervous system

By gradually moving from a lower-stress resting state to one that mimics the work you’re about to do, you’re priming your nervous system to help you move with the strength and control you’ll need to make the most out of your workout.

2. Activate and mobilize your body

With dynamic, exercise-specific movements that simulate the ranges of motion you’ll perform during the workout, you’re activating your muscles and mobilizing your joints so that your body is ready to move the way it should.

3. Optimize your performance

Increasing your body temperature and blood flow has a range of positive effects that boost your performance — improving oxygen delivery to active muscles, reducing reaction time, and increasing strength and power, just to name a few.

Warming up properly prepares your body to function its best during the more challenging exercises that follow. That means you’ll get more out of every workout, be more effective at meeting your goals, and guess what — you’ll feel better, too.

Confusion around how best to prepare our bodies for physical exertion means we often do it ineffectively, or skip it altogether. This results in a missed opportunity to train our bodies and optimize our exercise.

The old warm up, workout, cool down approach can do you a disservice when it results in a disproportionate focus on getting sweaty, without the proper set up. At worst, you’re more likely to be injured. At best, you’re exercising ineffectively.

And no matter how much time you think you’re saving by playing hooky on your warm up… “ain’t nobody got time for injuries or ineffective exercise.”

Every movement matters, and every part of your training — regardless of intensity — can be used to improve your performance and work toward lasting, positive change.

If more often than not, you find yourself jumping right into the heavy lifting, here’s how you should consider re-framing your workout:

Open up first (low stress level)

To start, address any restrictions or limitations that might inhibit your upcoming exercise with light corrective movements. Start to mobilize the relevant parts of your body to help them move in their full range of motion.

In other words, make sure you’re moving well and feeling loose — especially in the areas you want to focus on during your workout.

Activate your body (moderate stress level)

Next, stimulate your nervous system with some lighter moves that mimic the ranges of motion you’ll use in the next portion. You’re also increasing your body temperature, heart rate and respiration so that your body is ready to go to work.

Hint: if you’re preparing for an upper body workout by running on the treadmill, you’re doing it wrong.

Exert yourself (high stress level)

It’s time to “lock in” the movements you’ve been improving by opening up and activating your body.

This is the more traditional “workout” portion that people sometimes spend all their time on. But by properly preparing for this part, your body will be ready to perform dynamic movements under load, which means you’ll move with your true potential and maximize what you get out of each exercise.

Open up again (return to low stress level)

To finish, ease out of your exercise and check back in with some easy movement to reinforce that you’re feeling open before you get on with your day.

Feeling better in your body doesn’t need to hurt. When you take the time to properly sequence your exercise, you can change movement patterns that have been holding you back, train more effectively, experience progress more quickly, and feel good along the way.

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