You have likely noticed over the last month that your warm-ups at CrossFit Iron Legion have been… …well… …a little bit different.  Actually, they have been a whole lot different.  Gone are the days of the same predictable warm-up movements:  Run or row 500m followed by 20 pass throughs, 20 air squats, 20 lunges, some push-ups, and maybe an animal movement or two or a sumo squat.

In the last 4 weeks alone, we’ve seen the following variety of movements:  glute bridges, weighted glute bridges, banded glute bridges, banded squats, wall walks, strict chin-ups, weighted pull-ups, shoulder taps, handstand holds, rope climbs, rolls to candlestick, hollow rocks, false grip ring rows, muscle up skill work, dead hang L-sits, parallete L-sits, hip thrusters, weighted hip thrusters, Turkish get ups, ring pull-ups, box shoulder stretches, banded shoulder stretches, sets of I’s, Y’s, and T’s, double under practice, push-ups to Spiderman, and more.  And not just one quick set of the chosen movements each day, but often multiple rounds for quality (not time).

So what is going on here?  And should you care?

There is a back story here, and you should care.  What you are seeing and experiencing with the warm-ups is an always ongoing evolution.  CrossFit Iron Legion and all its coaches are constantly striving to improve—better every day.  This instructive motto applies not only to CrossFit athletes and our members, but to your coaches and to your box as a whole as well.  The warm-ups are just one of the many areas where substantial advances have been made at CFIL and are still being made.  (You likely also recognize many of the other improvements—more workout space, more specialty classes, new space for kids, entirely new programming—more than just the new warm-ups, an awesome new pro shop… …and there will be more to come.  Your box keeps evolving for the better—slowly, methodically, consistently.  As should you as an athlete and person.

But back to the warm-ups.

So what’s with these new warm-ups anyway?  There is method to this madness.  While there is nothing wrong with a warm-up of a 400m run plus some pass throughs, air squats, lunges, and a sumo squat, repeating it again and again misses an important opportunity.  Your coaches usually only have one hour with you each time you step into the box to work out.  There is so much to work on to improve fitness that we want to make the most of every last moment.  The warm-ups provide extremely valuable time and an outstanding opportunity to advance your fitness, so we want to make the most use of it as possible.

The new warm ups—which as you can see are often quite challenging—are not chosen by accident.  They are carefully programmed designed to advance your fitness to the full extent possible.  Instead of being routine, they follow the general CrossFit prescription of constantly variable functional movements.  There is always going to be some monostructural movement (i.e. running, rowing, jumping rope) to get your heart rate up, blood flowing, and muscles warm, which is a critical component of any warm up preceding intense physical activity.

But after getting your blood flowing and starting to warm your muscles, your warm up then becomes much more. The movements target skill development, for example double unders, rope climbs, false grip ring rows, and handstand holds.  They target core strength, for example L-sits, handstand holds, hollow rocks, shoulder taps, and glute bridges.  They address common strength deficiencies (banded squats, weighted glute bridges, pull-ups).  They address mobility (banded stretches, box shoulder stretches, push-ups to Spiderman).  Most of the movements chosen address multiple physical skills at once—for example rope climbs develop a skill (i.e. how to use your feet to help climb a rope) but at the same time target pulling strength, core strength, and grip strength.  Handstand holds develop balance, core strength, shoulder strength, and flexibility.  And on and on.

In summary, your warm-ups have become much more than just 10 minutes to get ready for your workout.  They are a critical part of your training and should be treated as such.  There is now as much thought going into design of your warm-up as there is into the chosen workout for the day.

So enjoy all these new movements and the variety in your warm-up.  The warm ups, part of your new programming, are every bit as important as your workout.  Don’t sleep walk through the warm-up, attack it with the same diligence you attack the main workout.  Doing so will pay substantial dividends with fitness gains.  And that is the point.  Better every day.