It’s 2008 and 15 year old Ben is sitting at Track Practice.
It’s the infamous part of the track season in Pennsylvania, March, where the odds of practice being canceled due to snow is greater than rain.
The coaches sat us down and were giving us a long spiel about how to perform at your best in our meets. Even to an ultra competitive performance junkie it was pretty dry.
Then our jumping coach had something to say that I never forgot…
“If You’re Not Sweaty, You’re Not Ready.”
Maybe I remember because that coach was my mother, but -as a teenage boy- probably not.
I think the simplicity (and truth) in that statement is what stood out to me.
And as it comes to sports performance, there’s very few scenarios where that is untrue.
That’s why almost all of our warm-ups start with a thermoregulatory warm-up.
It’s an essential part of the skeleton of a session.
The thermo part of a warm-up is raising your core temperature, where muscles and joints will feel and perform their best.
So a thermoregulatory warm-up is like essentially a “warm-up warm-up.”
It’s a bit redundant, which is why you don’t hear our coaches say that name much, but it’s why we often jump on a bike or a rower for 2-3 minutes before we start more specific warm-up prep.
It’s not complicated and it doesn’t take long, but it’s an essential step towards getting the best out of your workout.
My Advice?
You can do the research on your own and figure out how to maximize your warm-ups and prep work to crush your workout, or you can put it into the hands of people who have been thinking deeply about this kind of thing since 2008.
All snarkiness aside, our staff has dedicated much of our lives to helping people pursue the best version of themselves in fitness. So don’t do it alone. Reach out and see how we can help.
After all, warm-ups and prep work are just one small example of the attention to detail we strive to display each day.