Zeb’s warm up dump

IWC Winners and Results to be released at Noon!!

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

Run 400 meters

7 Muscle ups

Keegan Martin (age 17) 7 rounds + 5 MU, Kristan Klever 7 rounds

The wall ball sea.

To me the warm up serves two, maybe three purposes, in this priority:

1. To prepare body and mind for violent action.
2. To reinforce basic skills.
3. To practice new skills.

Obviously everyone is at different places in their CrossFit journeys and need to tailor their warm ups to some degree.  It is for this reason that neither I nor Diso nor G can give exact warm ups to each of you.  Instead we can give you our thoughts and maybe some templates to use as you develop your own to help you become more badass.  We’ve heard different requests from people ranging from ‘I need to work on x skill and y drill more often’ to ‘Just tell me what to do!’

If you’ve been CrossFitting for 3 months or less and have no idea what your strengths and weaknesses are, or are just one of those people that want to be told what to do, the classic warm up is a great place to start.  Like what diso and I have posted several times before, the body can generally do 5 things:  squat, open at the hip, close at the hip, push, and pull.  The classic warm up addresses all five and looks like this:

• Overhead Squat x 10 (squat)
• GHD Sit up x 10 (hip flexion)
• GHD Hip extension x 10 (hip opening)
• Pull ups x 10 (pull)

• Push ups or dips x 10 (push)

It has been our contention that performing the Classic warm up, I mean really concentrating on it and being in the moment for every rep, will prepare you for just about anything.  Pay attention to the top performers in our gym when they warm up or do DROM and you’ll see they are completely engrossed in the moment and focused on the here and now.

If you’ve been CrossFitting for 3 months to a year and have a rough idea of what you’re strengths and weaknesses are, start adding them into the warm up.  Let’s say you suck at wall ball shots, handstand push ups, and rope climbs, a good warm up might look like this:

• Wall ball shots x 10 (squat and throw)
• Knees to elbows x 10 (pull and hip closing)
• 10 second Handstand Hold (push)
• 1 Rope climb (Pull)
• GHD hip extension (hip opening)

It’s worth mentioning that nature has no obligation to honor anyone’s list of how the body works.  The rope climb with anchoring contains a pull, a hip closing, and a squat if you do them right.  Similarly the knees to elbow is a pull and hip close.  Either way, you’re still warming up and reinforcing skills, and the combinations are potentially limitless.

If you’ve been CrossFitting for a year or more, first of all, Congratulations.  That’s a feat in itself.  Let’s look at some of our veteran’s warm ups.  Diso’s self reported weaknesses are heavy squats and press to handstands.  He essentially does the DROM throughout the day and then does:

• Progressively heavy or banded barbell squats, varying weights.

• Press to handstand practice.   

• Practice WOD movements.

That’s it!  G mentioned something in her post that had her performing at her very best when she’s really sweaty and warm, and her best way to achieve this is heavy back squats (a lady after my own heart), so her warm up looks like this:

• Heavy back squats sets of 3 or sets of 5
• DROM between sets.
• Practice WOD movements.

Every time I see Joe D work out, he still does the classic warm up at least once before each WOD.  Before Tyler left, he did the classic warm up but used deep handstand push ups for the push section.  As for me, I try to jog 800 meters because running is my weakness and DROM is where I start falling into the WOD mentally.  So here’s mine:

• Jog 800 and DROM (practice weakness and POSE, body and mind prep)
• OH Squat, GHD sit ups, GHD hip extensions
• Shoulder Prep (for past injury)
• Practice WOD movements. 

If the WOD has weightlifing, I almost always warm up heavier than what the Rx is.  I’ve no proof that this helps performance at all but it helps me mentally, and I love lifting heavy anyway.  If you’ve made it this far in the post you really care about the doing things right, and we can’t wait to see what you’re cooking up.

Post thoughts to comments.