We all know that pre-workout warm up is important. It increases your heart rate and blood circulation slowly. When you are properly warmed up before you start your workout, you can get more from the exercise and you decrease your risk of injury. Here is my YouTube video, followed by description of each of the exercises.
High knees
This is a quick way to get your heart going. It engages your core and hamstrings. You can do high knees in place or while moving forward. It looks like a run, you just make sure to pull up your knees to your chest.
Butt kicks
Second exercise helping you with increasing heart rate, butt kicks will also warm up your legs and stretch your hamstrings. Like high knees, you can do it running in place or over a distance. Just do your best to kick you own a$$ 😉
Arm circles
Start with small arm circles to warm up your arms, shoulders, back and biceps. Performing this stretch will help you ease into the next one, which is a bit more challenging. Stand with your legs at about shoulder width and stretch out your arms to the sides, palm downs. Make small circles, first in one direction, then in the opposite direction.
Shoulders stretch
To my surprise, I have really enjoy this one. It makes my shoulders and upper back feel good! It starts a lot like arm circles, but you will need a resistance band. Hold it out with a little bit of tension at waist height. Then slowly move it above your head and then along your back. I tend to adjust how I hold the band a little during my first stretch to make sure that I am stretching, but also not hurting myself. Move your arms as slowly as you can – it will help you not to hurt yourself. If you let the band control your movement, it’s easy to hurt yourself.
Scorpion stretch
This stretch helps with the lower back. As you can probably guess from my article about back pain from cycling, I occasionally have issues with my lower back. This stretch is great for it! Lay down on the ground, face down and stretch your arms out. Pick up your foot and touch the ground on the other side of your body. Try to keep your hips on the ground as much as you can. Then repeat on the other side. Scorpion stretch is probably the most effective lower back stretch I have ever tried!
Thoracic spine stretch
Quite a name… But it means stretching part of your spine by your rib cage. I try to avoid having too many props for my workouts, but sometimes they are unavoidable. You need a rod of some sort for this one. I tend to use stick from a tall broom or a ski pole (yeah, I am creative like that), although using a weighted bar makes it more of a workout, not just a stretch. Lay down on the ground, face down with arms stretched out forward, holding the rod. Keep one arm down and move the other one up and over to the other side, until your shoulder blade touches the ground (or comes close to it – how far you get depends on how well stretched you are). Like with the other spine stretch, try to keep your hips on the ground as much as you can.
Happy stretching and enjoy your workouts!