Don't be like my husband.

Last night my husband played his first game of touch in about 7 years.

He is terrible at warming up, stretching and cooling down, so I warned him that he needed to warm up properly and do more than he thinks otherwise he WILL get hurt.

Now what do you think happened?

A. He warmed up properly, played an excellent game and came home feeling good?

B. Tore his hamstring in the first 15mins and is now hobbling around the house complaining?

If you picked A, you lose.

So what are the benefits of warming up? These are applicable to all forms of training, not just touch.

1. Prepares/ lubricates/ increases mobility of muscles, joints & organs

2. Better performance.

3. Reduced likelihood of injury.

My favourite generalised warm up exercise is inchworms; which target the whole posterior chain. But any exercise which uses the muscle groups you will be using, but at a lower depth/ frequency/ weight will work.

• Squats starting with body weight, shallow depth, normal speed with no pause x 10 reps.

• Hip circles starting with a smaller range of motion, the slowly expanding the distance your limb travels.

Warming up is as important to your workout as your workout if you want to get the most results/ benefits from it.

On the days I lack motivation I also use the warm up as my excuse to go. I tell myself I will just do a 5-10 min warm up then head home, but generally by the time I have finished my warm up I'm ready to go and looking forward to the harder parts of the session.

*I read Harry this email and he would like you to know "he did warm up properly, but his exceptional skills on the field meant he still got hurt". And also he "isn't complaining"* 😂

Shea

xx