There is a rhyme and a reason for everything we did with our participants! It is extremely important that we always started with a warm-up such as a light jog or a power walk along with our warm up exercises. The blood needs to be moved around and put into the muscles and cells. I use this analogy for describing a warm-up. If the body is cold and not warmed up properly the muscles are like beef jerky, but if your muscles are warmed up, now the muscles are like taffy. It is much easier to rip or tear a muscle, tendon or ligament on a body that is not properly warmed up because they are stiff like beef jerky, but a taffy body has much less of a risk to pull or tear anything.
Core Workout:
10-15 Sun Gods (arm rotations):
Extremely important to do this upper body warm up because it introduces blood flow to the tiny intricate muscles that help hold the shoulders together. Sun Gods were done to the side like a capital T, to the front like Frankenstein and to the sky looking like the letter I. Having them do these exercises got their shoulders ready for anything we had them do upper body wise. This exercise warmed up the anterior, medial and rear deltoids.
10-15 Squats (in place):
This exercise is known as a compound exercise, meaning that more than one joint is being moved. Joints moved are the hips, knees and ankles. Now this exercise brings more blood flow to the lower extremities to prevent injuries for lower body exercises that the participants will be performing for the remainder of the day.
10-15 Marine Corps Push-Ups:
Targets the entire upper body, chest, triceps and abdominals. This exercise is also a compound exercise involving the shoulder, elbow and wrist joints. Because the shoulders were warmed up from Sun Gods this will help prevent any upper body injuries doing this tough exercise the Marine Corps Push-Up. A strong chest and triceps allow one to push objects out of their way that could get one out of tight situations if need be. This exercise is also a great “mind builder” because the stronger you feel in your chest and arms, the more your confidence builds. Many of the participants could not even do one push-up when we began.
10-15 Side Lunges:
This exercise works the adductor and abductor muscles of the legs and gluts, these are the inner and outer muscles of the legs and gluts. We live in a three dimensional world so it is important to train bodies in every plane possible, because one never knows when they may need to move in a plane they are not used to because the act of urgency is needed. Basic example would just be getting in and out of one’s vehicle.
10-15 Dips:
This exercise mainly targets the triceps which are the back of the arms, but it also strengthens the front part of the shoulders. This is also a compound exercise that requires the shoulders, elbows and wrists to move. This exercise also helps strength the abdominal region, by keeping the abs tight one is able to do the exercise better because with tight abs, it is easier to keep the chest up and shoulders back to put max intensity on the triceps.
10-15 Front Lunges:
This exercise concentrates more on the lead leg that is stepped into to concentrate on that legs quadriceps (front part of leg) and hamstrings (back part of the leg) and the calf helps balance the leg being stepped into. When front lunges are done on unstable ground like a park, the exercise is hard because the leg has to work extra hard to keep the body balanced.
10-15 Side Straddle Hops (Jumping Jacks):
Great exercise for the full body from toes to finger tips, the blood is going everywhere now, but it is important to warm up with the exercises prior to this exercise. This is a ballistic type of exercise meaning that it contains fast quick movements. If not warmed up properly one could get injured. The shoulders are moving fast and so are the legs and it is important to warm up the intricate muscles before these areas of the body move quickly.
10-15 Windmills:
When the entire list of warm up exercises are all done, windmills are great to finish by stretching out the back of the legs (hamstrings) along with stretching out those tight backs. This exercise should not be performed fast or ballistic unless someone is an advanced student.
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