R – Raise
Before we look to tailor a warm up to the gym session that will follow it’s important that we prepare for the warm up itself. This may sound a bit ridiculous but raising our heart rate and core body temperature allows for a much more supple musculature. This means that when stretching or looking to increase range of movement we start from a position where muscle fibres already have “some give” rather than fighting to get even the slightest bit of length or mobility through each muscle or joint. Raising the heart rate doesn’t take long and can be done with any light cardio.
A – Activate
Activation has become a great buzz word of late. All it means is to make sure that there is adequate blood flow to the muscle groups that you want. For example if you are someone who struggles to recruit muscle fibres in your glutei when squatting then it may be helpful to do a glute specific exercise in order to “switch them on” sort of like a push start.
M – Mobilise
Mobility is often a limiting factor when looking to get the most out of big movements. Everyone has an element of mobility. The key is in identification of the immobility and addressing it with the correct mobility aids or exercises in order to allow unrestricted movement through the entire lift. Someone who suffers from a lack of mobility in their ankles may be advised to perform ankle dorsiflexion exercises prior to squatting in order to achieve more depth in their squat.
P – Potentiate
Potentiation is very simply the idea of preparing you body for a loaded lift. Now although it’s difficult to mimic a loaded lift without loading it, our power output can be very similar. This allows us to use ballistic style movements where we substitute load for power in order to properly prepare for a strenuous load. A good example of this might be doing a squat jump before a back squat.