The Unfiltered Health Podcast
The Unfiltered Health Podcast delivers real, authentic conversations about health, wellness, and longevity. We break down complex health topics, sharing evidence-based insights, practical advice, and personal experiences. Our mission is to educate, inspire, and build a supportive community committed to living well and thriving together—no filters, just the truth about what it takes to achieve lasting health.
The Unfiltered Health Podcast
74 - Revamp Your Routine: The Power of Warm-Ups and the Cool-Down Debate
Ever wondered why your workout might not be hitting its peak? It could all boil down to the often overlooked warm-up. Join us as Steph and I unpack the essential aspects of warming up, dismissing myths about their need to be lengthy or complex. Learn how to tailor your warm-up to fit your personal needs using the principle of auto-regulation, and discover the art of balancing specific and non-specific exercises for optimum readiness. We delve into mental prep too, because getting your head in the game is half the battle won. Whether you're grappling with stiffness or aiming for a boost in mobility, our insights will help you craft a warm-up that’s as flexible and dynamic as your goals.
Switching gears, we spark a lively debate on the age-old question of cooldowns. Are they a critical finish to your workout or just an overrated step in the routine? Tune in to hear our differing views and decide for yourself. From the benefits of dynamic versus static warm-ups to Steph’s personal, no-frills routine, we challenge the conventional and embrace a personalized approach to fitness. Plus, get a sneak peek at our upcoming episode where we tackle the mighty deadlift. Whether you're a new gym-goer or a fitness veteran, this episode is packed with tips and debates to elevate your exercise game.
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Welcome to episode 74 of the Unfiltered Health Podcast. Today, we're diving into something that's often overlooked but absolutely essential, and it's the importance of a proper warm-up before any workout. Some things that we will talk about today include what it should look like, the duration, dissecting what it is and what not to do, and mobility versus the exercise. These are just some topics me and Steph have thrown out today, so we're going to chat through them. I think. First, what we should discuss is the importance of warm-ups. Steph, I'm going to get you to start this part today.
Speaker 2:I think warm-ups is something that is often overlooked, because people often think do I need to warm up? Is it important that I warm up? Can I just skip my warm up?
Speaker 2:on the flip side, a lot of people think that their warm-up needs to be like an hour long yeah, no and so not at all, and so the importance of an actual warm-up is to, in short, prepare you for the session that you're about to complete. It's as simple as that. It doesn't need to be any complicated than that. It's basically something to get you prepped and ready for the session you're about to complete and we think about if we did break it down.
Speaker 1:It does look like just increasing that blood flow to the side that you're about to work and you're going to at least ease first the pressure that you're going to feel in your joints because there's going to be all this blood flowing to the muscle. It's going to help you feel muscled, not just joint, and then you're going to improve that muscle elasticity I always struggle to say that word so you're going to have better ability to contract and relax and contract and relax and go through the actual exercise probably, rather than just kind of smashing yourself too soon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you don't need to do that and, like we were speaking off pod, you're talking about auto regulation. I don't know if you want to speak about this here, but I just thought briefly.
Speaker 2:Mental preparation If you want to talk about that, please be my guest yeah, the you know the importance of a warm-up is obviously you want to prep your muscles, your ligaments, your tendons, your body mentally and physically for the exercise you're about to complete.
Speaker 2:It's also a really good time for you to determine how hard you're going to go through the session.
Speaker 2:So when we're talking about order regulation, it's basically how your body is feeling for the session and adjusting yourself or your session in accordance to what you're feeling. So example if you have to do I don't know and 100 kilo squat in your program for the day, but you've had a really crappy sleep, you're not feeling the greatest, everything just feels a bit achy. And during your warm-up, as you're prepping, you might one actually feel really, really good. So you're like, actually I'm going to keep the 100 kilos and that's fine. Or if you're still feeling really crappy, really sluggish, your warm-up sets are feeling super heavy, then you might actually decide that you're going to pull back and do like a 90 kilo squat or an 80 kilo squat. And that is what auto-regulation is. And that is also why warm-ups are so important, because it's a good chance to get an understanding of how your body is feeling and whether your body is ready to, you know, hit the desired outcome or hit the desired weights for your session.
Speaker 1:And whether your body is ready to, you know, hit the desired outcome or hit the desired weights for your session. So I find myself personally, depending on what workout I'm doing, how I'm feeling on the day, my wants change based on what, like I just don't do the stock standard anymore, like Dr Locke, big three, some glute bridges and crab walks, a bird dog I don't just do those anymore. Like, depending on how I'm feeling. There are some exercises that I definitely need to always incorporate, especially for my upper back and my scoliosis. So those are like my priority items.
Speaker 1:But if I walk into the gym and I don't mentally feel good, I actually just like I've recently started doing this, but I just like jumping on the treadmill and just moving my legs and getting my heart, my heart rate up, getting my blood and my body warm, because soon as I start doing that, I actually start to feel more mentally prepared to do my workout when.
Speaker 2:I come to the gym when I'm cold yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Sometimes when I come to the gym, when I'm cold, I just have no, like my session just doesn't feel the same, like I don't have the same push in myself, or like the session is slower, like it starts it starts slower yeah, so.
Speaker 2:I find myself leaning towards different things and you know your warm-up can change, like you said, from session to session. It doesn't have to be this stock standard thing every single time and when you break warm-ups down, you've usually got like your specific warm-ups and your non-specific warm-ups and your specific warm-ups. Warm-ups are often warm-ups that are replicating the lift that you're about to do. So, for example, if your first exercise is a squat, then you might decide to squat an empty bar and then you might add a bit more weight and then you might do a couple warm-up sets before you start your working set.
Speaker 2:That's an example of like a specific warm-up, because you're replicating the movement that you're about to complete in your working set, and a non-specific warm-up would be things that you feel you need to get you prepped for that session. So I don't know, if your lower back's feeling a bit stiff, you might do some lower back activation or you might do some lower back mobility work. If your hips are getting stiff, you might do the same. So you can essentially chop and change your warm-up depending on, one, how you feel in the day, two, what you think your body needs and three, obviously, what exercises you're going to be completing in the session yeah, I think that's a example of how you can also potentially choose your warm-ups.
Speaker 1:I never thought of them as maybe specific and non-specific. I've always just separated them as like replicating the exercise you're about to do. But I like, I like that, I like that, that difference. I think, like for most clients, if you're not coming into the gym and actually spending at least three to five minutes doing some form of warm-up, I do think you're neglecting your body and you probably should do some form of specific exercise that actually targets the similar exercise that you're about to complete.
Speaker 1:And I do have, like, a population of clients that do come in and they just they don't warm up, they just come in and I'm like, all right, give me 10 squats, give me 10, 10, this, give me a minute plank. It's so like just generalized in terms of a warmup, but at the same time that can just be enough for them to feel warm and then they're actually going to engage their body a lot better because their nervous system's awake. Like people coming into even with you, stressed, stressed, beat up, they're injured or they're sore and they or they're tired, they're not really thinking about themselves sometimes. So sometimes it is really important that you just do something because you need to get your head when you want to train. I feel personally you need to get your head space in the right place to train properly. You can't just come in and be fluffing in your head and on your phone scrolling and then not actually present. You can't just come to the gym and not be present.
Speaker 2:I feel like those sessions are the terrible.
Speaker 2:The terrible sessions are the shitter sessions especially the sessions where you have a heavy session and you're going to be lifting heavy like you need to be in the right frame of mind in order to do that. You can't just come in dragging your feet. You can't just have that attitude of like oh I can't be bothered, I'm just gonna like brush my warm-up like you really need to get your body and mind like in the right frame so then you can properly execute your session and you have good intent as well. And I think that's another importance of a warm-up it sets you up to have good intent for your session, because there's a big difference between, like completing your session and going through the motions and completing your session and really putting intent and drive into every single exercise.
Speaker 1:The amount of times I've walked into the gym when I was powerlifting and I was not feeling it, or those sessions were so hard, and then I'd be injured because I just didn't care, like. I was like at a point where I was just lifting heavy just to get through it. I'm just going through the motions just to get through it, just to get through it, just get through it, just get through it week on week on week. And then the compounding effects of like, lifting so heavy every single week for a certain number of weeks, just pull up injured. You just pull up injured, you pull up sore. You don't like your training anymore, you don't want to compete, you don't want to like, don't want to lift anything, you just want to go back to you know, lifting something else with a different rep range.
Speaker 2:It's just, it turns ugly and it's like that, saying right, fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Yep, that's the one, and it's kind of like you know you can't expect your body to be okay with walking into the gym and then going to pull a hundred kilo deadlift especially if you've been sitting down all day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like that's when most people will injure themselves, not necessarily because it's not because they didn't spend 10 minutes doing like a proper warm-up to get their muscles kind of on, it's because they literally just walked in cold. Like you don't have to do this like full fancy warm-up. All you have to do is, you know, lift 30 kilo, deadlift, lift to 40, lift to 60, then build up to 100. Like it doesn't have to be fancy, it can literally be as simple as that. But you just want to make sure that your body is at least primed and your nervous system is ready to go, especially if you are going to be lifting heavy.
Speaker 1:So, okay, let's maybe dissect mobility versus activation, and perhaps stretching, dynamic versus static. Let's unpack maybe some of those. Okay, I'm happy to start. You want me to start? You go for it. Okay, you go for it. Okay. So I'll do the dynamic and the static, because that's the easiest what am I doing?
Speaker 1:The mobility. Mobility versus activation, okay, yeah, okay, we can, we can collaborate. So dynamic is obviously something well, not obviously, maybe not obviously for you guys but dynamic is something that you do in motion, so it's moving, and I usually would say a dynamic warm-up is something that's going to prepare you a little bit better than just a static warm-up. So static is something that I'd look at doing, possibly at the end of a workout. That's like textbook set three and four dynamic at the start, static at the end. I would definitely suggest static is not going to do much at the start. I don't think it's not beneficial. It might help with your mental preparation. So maybe you do do some form of static stretching. That makes you feel a little bit better, makes you mentally more prepared. But dynamic and what Steph's going to talk about, the mobility and activation is going to lead you much better into an actual workout than just doing the dynamic and the static. So just to clarify, dynamic is the one that you're doing in motion.
Speaker 1:Think of like leg swings, think of some form of like twisting and reaching up and down with a stretching and reaching up. I can't think of any too many dynamic shoulder dislocations where you're swimming in your arms. These are things that cow stretch. Yeah, sure, sure, that kind of stuff. And then your static is just very like sit and reach, grab your toes. You're stretching your hamstring, you know. You bring your leg up to stretch your quad, you bring your arm across to stretch your shoulder. That's very static. That does not very much, and I would never just go from that straight into an exercise that you're about to perform for your workout. So you need to have a bit of like understanding between the two. And now, steph, you take the weight, because this is the gold stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and especially with the static stuff, remember that we want to warm up the body, we want to improve and increase blood flow to the muscles to prep them for the session. So it needs to be things that involve movement, not stuff that involves like holding a certain stretch in a particular position and then usually, when we move through our warm-up, we get into mobility exercises and then activation exercises. Mobility exercises are also stretches that just get the joints moving better. So a great mobility exercise would be something to do with opening up the hips, really taking the hips through like the full range of motion, the same with the shoulders, same with the thoracic or the mid back. Your activation exercises are very isolated excess or stretches, very isolated stretches or movement patterns that warm up a particular muscle. The easiest example would be like imagine you've got a band around your knees and you're doing like walks, monster walks or crab walks. A lot of people use that because it's a very quick way to just activate and warm up the hips.
Speaker 1:Banded pull-aparts.
Speaker 2:Banded pull-aparts, something that just focuses on really firing up and priming those muscles to prep you for your warm-up Sorry to prep you for the exercises, and so they and sorry to prep you for the exercises and they would be an example of your activation type exercises. And you can also use um lifts as a type of activation exercise. So, for example, a squat under an empty bar, an rdl with an empty bar, um, literally anything that you know. Lap, pull down with a lightweight, like they are all forms of an activation, because you're starting to prime and prep those muscles, um to get ready for the session that you've.
Speaker 1:You know you've provided what's your go-to warm-up setup for yourself?
Speaker 2:um, I don't have a go-to warm-up. I am very much um go in and see how I'm feeling, so and it's I love how it works so well.
Speaker 2:I was not expecting that yeah, I'm not structured at all. I used to sit there and I used to do like 10 minutes of, you know, mobility and stretching and activation and breathing and this and that, and then I used to do my session and it would turn into you know, a very long hour hour and a half session. I'm the type of person that likes to be in and out quick 45 minutes, train hard, go hard and then out the door. I don't like spending time in the gym like messing around.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of people like that.
Speaker 2:And a lot of people like that. A lot of people are busy and a lot of people have things to do, so they do want to be in and out. So my sessions are usually I walk in, I see how I'm feeling. If I need to do a quick little stretch or warm up, I will do that. Otherwise I'll just jump on the tready if I feel like it as well, just to do like a quick little um, I don't know five minute walk, but then I will make sure that if my warmup is, you know, one minute, which sometimes it is I'll just do like one small exercise and be like yep, that's enough If my first exercise is a squat, for example.
Speaker 1:I am so shocked, yeah, I am so shocked, yeah, but I am so shocked, steph, it works so well, it works so well.
Speaker 2:And but you know what, if my first exercise is a spot, for example, I will do like three to five warm-up sets and then I'll go into my working set. So I'm still doing a warm-up, I'm still priming my body. Some days I feel, feel a bit stiffer, so I need to sit there and, you know, do some proper mobility work. But then other days I'm like, no, I'm good to go, so I might do something really quick and then jump into it.
Speaker 1:Okay, I was not expecting that from you at all. I was expecting, like some, like order and structure, but no, no.
Speaker 2:No, I used to do that, but I think I do think it's overrated. I do think it's overrated and I think it's dependent on person to person, because, yeah, it does. I'm fortunate enough that I don't have aches or pains constantly. I don't I I have had injuries in the past, but nothing that is uh affecting me now, and most of the time I feel pretty good when I get into a session, so I don't feel like I need to sit there and do like a 10 minute warm-up whereas other people lucky me but in saying that, I look after my body.
Speaker 2:So if you don't look after your body, you are going to be stiff all the time, you are going to be feeling like crap all the time and you probably need to do a lot of movement prep before a session. Also, I don't lift like a power lifter in terms of like heavy prep that requires proper, like a good, solid warmup. So it also depends on your style of training as well.
Speaker 1:I do agree. I do think with just clients who are similar to you, where you just want to get in, you want to get out. Doing the basics is honestly enough. I definitely would. I have with our clients and structures I know you do as well. You do plan something for them to actually do and perform absolutely regularly, to actually commit to improving their mobility and ability to activate that mind to muscle connection on the muscles. So that is important. But I do think sport, specific wise, yeah, it does change. Powerlifting, my gosh, the amount of warm-ups I needed to do just to feel my body feel prepped and primed. I should have just stuck to the treadmill for five minutes and then jumped down and then got into that, because it would have saved me so much time and effort trying to warm up a muscle rather than just getting blood flow to the sides right away and just feeling hotter.
Speaker 1:Yeah because I think, like temperature is a really good gauge of like okay. Okay, my body is feeling warm and mentally I actually feel a lot better, because when you come into a session cold as we've spoken about it's not fun. So, yeah, really interesting. I'm shocked by that. Personally, at the moment, I'm doing like at least three to four exercises prior to my lifts because I just feel better with it. I just genuinely like that. Plus the treadmill walk has helped me like so much.
Speaker 2:Really, just, I've really just enjoyed doing that and that's why you got to do what works best for you. I don't think there is such thing as this like gold set of exercises that are going to bulletproof you know your, your warm-up for your training and you know, xyz, it's kind of like just pick three to four exercises or stretches that are specific to your body. What you need in order to prep you for the session and do it like your warm up shouldn't be longer than you know, five to ten minutes, if that, I think ten minutes is even super, super long, but it might be necessary for some people depending on the style of training. Um, but a good, solid, five minute warm-up should be enough just to get your body ready. And then, if you feel like you're still not 100% warmed up, we'll then take a few more warm-up sets for you know, your squat, your deadlift, whatever exercise you've got.
Speaker 1:First take a few extra warm-up sets before you move into your working set, like it can literally be I think I think you said it before perfectly like, if you are injured and you are banged up and you are stiff, you need to have something a little bit more structured, maybe a little bit more regulated with your routine. But if you're, if you look after your body, then you should be in generally good health to not start into a heavy lift straight away we're still not that but at least start doing the specific warm-up exercise activation that is just for that and then move on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just general movement prep.
Speaker 1:Just general movement prep, we said to also talk about our opinions of a cool-down. What do you think Is it necessary?
Speaker 2:In my opinion? No, I think it is. Cool-downs are a little bit overrated and there's actually no research to support that cooldowns are going to lead to a decrease in injury or a decrease in doms or anything like that. So I I don't think a cooldown is necessary. The only time I would say it might be useful is just to bring your body back down to a resting state. Um, you know, something like some breathing. This is something that I did really well, um, with a soccer team.
Speaker 2:At the end of our session I got them all down the ground. They were doing a really hard session. Um, it was a small sided game and we're working hard for like 10 minutes. So at the end of the session they were all huffing, puffing, you know, just trying to get their breath back. So I got them sitting down, laying, or they actually lay down on their back, and we literally just did two minutes of a small inhale and a long, deep exhale, just getting their breath back, getting their heart rate back to a resting state. Um, and they all stood up and they're like oh, wow, we feel really good, because sometimes it's especially after a training session, if you're going like that hard. Often, you know, you just like get your bag and leave, but your body's still in this like really amped up state. It's just good to bring them down into you know resting, staying homeostasis and you know off they go.
Speaker 2:That's probably the only time I'll use like a cool down as such, but I won't sit there and be like static stretch or anything like that. I do think all of that is is overrated, I agree, I definitely agree.
Speaker 1:I've not really, unless it's been like a group class and we're having a good time and we're kind of using it as like a bit of a community bonding session.
Speaker 1:Yeah, stretching down together.
Speaker 1:I've never, really, ever, ever, actually never, implemented a cool down into my PT personal training routines with my clients.
Speaker 1:I think, honestly, if you feel better with it and you do have stiffness and you like I would use the call down as to re-go, through activation and some mobility work to essentially unstiff yourself after the session, because you will get tight, you will get like sore a little bit. So maybe you do need to redo your things and go and work on your body again, because if you go home and you sit entry the whole time, do you need to work on something like your squat form and just work on mobility, because mobility is essentially range under tension. So I personally think I wouldn't do a cool down and just static stretch. But if you need to work on something after your session that you're, you know all your lifts are done, your accessories and you have five minutes spare and you'd like to do it, just to tick some boxes, maybe to improve some stiffness that you might be feeling somewhere else. Go hard, because your blood flow is already like working and you're probably in a good state to actually reach some end ranges of emotions better. That's my thought.
Speaker 2:I think it's more so, like you know what's the, what's the reasoning behind why you want to cool down. You know, is it because you just like to do something to, you know, bring your heart rate down, so you sit there and you might do a little hamstring stretch or something and then you get your breath back and then you know, off you go? Or is it because you think it's going to stop you from getting injured? So it's kind of like, if it, if you think it's going to stop you from getting injured, you're probably wasting your time. But if you do like that as a way to just like finish off your workout and get your body back to resting state, then you know she'll go for it. There's no harm in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's well summed up. We smashed that today.
Speaker 2:I think that sums us up. We did have a few interruptions in between.
Speaker 1:I hope that audio worked, because if it hasn't, don't know what we're going to do. Just chop it up.
Speaker 2:It'd be, really it'd be a shame for you not to hear my elevator singing. I hope it's in there, because that'll be great it'll be hilarious because I was like while we're waiting for Raquel, I'm just going to do oh my god radio hosting 101. I love it and then I was trying to think of stuff to say and I'm like I got nothing it was a while it was at least three minutes of like blackout it was.
Speaker 1:It was okay, we'll find out on the recording. I'm gonna bring like edit this on Friday guys and post this up on Mondays. We're gonna change our podcasting actually recording release day, so we're gonna record on Wednesdays, have it done and edited by Fridays and then up on the podcast on Mondays. So we're going to be technically a week behind, but I actually think that helps us out, both because we're both business owners and editing the pod a little bit and getting all that up actually takes a lot of work. So it actually helps me out a lot. So, thank you all for listening. Thanks for being here. We've got another episode next week coming on deadlifts. So if you have any questions, yes, and about deadlifts, please send us your questions. We will be unpacking the dead. So, yeah, that's all from us. Thank you for being here. Thank you.