Chapter 5: Stop Wasting 50% of Your Training Time: The 10 Minute Warm Up Framework
The Lethal Warm Up Protocol
The fitness industry has bastardised warm-ups to the point that I basically just hate everything about all of them.
99% of people should be training at an intensity that elicits a training adaptation (i.e. actually working out) within 10 minutes of walking in the gym.
I'm not anti warm-up, but I am against people wasting 50% of their weekly training time doing things with a negligible adaptive stimulus and thinking it's a good idea because they feel slightly better when they finally start training, only to later complain that they "don't have time" for their accessories, conditioning, etc.
I'm against people trying to mobilise their ankles for 20 minutes before squatting instead of just giving themselves a little heel elevation and doing 20 minutes of squats.
I'm against people doing 5 sets of glute activation drills before 3 sets of actual glute training and staying weak, when they could have just done 8 sets of actual glute training and gotten strong.
Warming up for so long that you miss out on the training you really need perpetuates a vicious cycle of overshooting the training you still have time for, missing out on accessories and conditioning, feeling broken, needing excessively long warm-ups, etc.
Some basic warm-up is certainly helpful, but needing an excessively long or specialized one is a good sign that you lack intensity discipline, are not actually giving yourself adequate recovery between sessions, or are neglecting weak points and positions in your actual training.
Here's what actually works: a focused 10-minute framework that hits three critical objectives and gets you ready for peak performance without stealing time from your real training.
THE 3 PILLARS OF A LETHAL WARM UP
Pillar 1: Elevate Core Body Temperature
Your muscles perform optimally when your core temperature rises 1-2 degrees above baseline. You don’t want to be dripping in sweat, but we want to create a state where our muscles, tendons & joints are warm & pumped full of fresh blood.
You rolling around on the ground will not achieve the necessary temperatures. Things like rolling or static stretching does the complete opposite of this, and is probably why you feel like crap when you start your main lift of the day.
Pillar 2: Prepare for Session-Specific Demands
Your warm-up must rehearse the movement patterns and energy systems you're about to challenge. If you're squatting heavy, your warm-up should include squatting movements. If you're doing explosive work, include fundamental explosive elements.
I will always prescribe the same movement patterns of the first 2 raw strength exercise of the session.
For example, if that is a squat pattern & bench press pattern, then I will give a client something like a goblet squat flow & push up flow. Each of these will take 2 minutes each to complete, then it’s time to stop fucking around & start shifting heavy weight.
Pillar 3: Activate Your Central Nervous System
Your nervous system controls everything; force production, coordination, reaction time. A proper warm-up primes your CNS for the demands ahead while establishing optimal movement patterns.
Completing jumps, explosive activities & agility drills will be some of the best ways in order to effectively not only elevate core temperature (pillar #1), but also start to fire your nervous system.
THE 10 MINUTE NEURAL REWIRING PROTOCOL
I have played around & experimented with hundreds of mobility, activation & neural priming drills over the last 10 years, I have condensed the warm up process into the following 3 step, 10 minute structure:
STEP 1: NEURAL PRIMING
One of my most viral posts “How Jumping Rope Rewires Your Body to Become Lethal”, covers why I am so bullish on jump rope as a fundamental warm up.
It has been used by the most lethal men in history (Ali, Tyson, Special Forces) for decades.
Before an anabolic session, I suggest jump rope for 3 minutes. This is sufficient time to warm up the achilles tendon, it excited the nervous system & covers all the things you wish the foam roller did for you in such a short duration.
Think about it:
Elevated Body Temperature Pillar 1: jump rope is used by martial artists to warm the body up & get a sweat on, no brainer.
Primes the Movements of The Session Pillar 2: Anabolic sessions will have a jumping component, jump rope is a low intensity variation.
Primes the Nervous System Pillar 3: Due to the rhythmic nature & coordination required, you are firing the nervous system.
See? Fucking perfect warm up tool.