The Workout Sandwich: Warming Up & Cooling Down

Coaches Tips

The key to a great workout is warming up your body properly. Thorough warm ups get your body and mind ready for the workout and helps prevent injuries. Good warm ups don't need to be anything fancy, light movements that get your body warm and heart rate up is already a great start. If you know certain areas give you more trouble, specific dynamic stretching or using some aids is a smart next step. For example, walking lunges, arm circles, using light kettlebells or dumbbells, or using bands to help with range of motion or providing light resistances to simple body weight movements. Equally as important, but often forgotten, is cooling down! A proper cool down, even just 5 minutes of work, can significantly help reduce the amount of soreness that hits you when you get to work or get home. Simple cool downs can involve active recovery like a few easy minutes on the bike, or mobility work to help relax your muscles. Even a few minutes of mindful breathing with light stretching can do wonders to get your body ready for the next part of your day. Here's what our coaches have to say in creating the ultimate workout sandwich.

Coach Jayme: General warm up! Anything that gets you warm! Grab a bike or rower and get moving for about 5 minutes. Do some burpees or bear crawl and then some air squats to loosen up. Then get into some specific stretching areas for movements you’ll see that day! (Bands, lacrosse balls, kettlebells, dumbbells are a good place to start). Try to avoid static stretches; save those for your cool down!

Simply put: warm up = get yourself warm

Coach Kurtis: Warm up: bike, row, use some KB/DB's for pressing etc. Cool down: bike and stretch! Couch, pigeon, use the bands to help you get deeper into stretches, etc. All great ways!

Coach Sam: Pick one or two problem areas (for me ankle and groin) do a little bit of soft tissue work on those areas. This could be with the lacrosse ball, voodoo band, or rolling stick. Then spend some time getting your heart rate up on the bike. Then find a stretch or two that mimics the movements from the day's workout.

Coach Evelyn: Look at your workout ahead to determine how you need to prep your body. Get the body warmed up to a light sweat - try a light run outside. Follow that up by flossing the joints and working through some warm up movements that will be repeated during the workout. When you’re done the workout, grab a foam roller or lacrosse ball and work those tight muscles. End with some good stretching.

Coach Steve: My favourite warm up always involves voodoo floss. Wrap up a joint nice and tight, then, move through some range of motion. For example, I’ll wrap my hip and then do 15-20 air squats.

Coach Mickey: After spending 5-10 minutes on the bike or rower I like to do some dynamic movements like arm swings and leg swings to get started. From there I look at if anything feels extra tight or sore and will work on that area for a few minutes.