The 5 minutes before class...

The 5 minutes before class…

Almost everyone gets to the gym about 5 minutes before class starts, how you spend this time is important. If you get to class, set your bag down and stand around waiting for the coach to yell “alright guys let's get started”, you’ve wasted a very important 5 minutes that could be used to improve your health and performance in the long term. You could instead, use this time wisely and set yourself up for success in class.

Specific Warm Ups.

Every class has a general warm up that will get you ready to hit the workout for the day, what the class doesn’t have, is a warm up specific to YOU. Maybe you have a bad knee or a tight shoulder, or maybe your quads are a bit sore from squats the other day.

You can never warm up too much, make use of those 5 minutes when you first get in the door, make use of all the bands, balls, foam rollers and other equipment the gym has for you to use. Use this time to stretch, mobilize, and do corrective exercises, that you know you should do more of, but can’t seem to find the time at home.

Make use of the coaches (if they are not busy with the previous class), we are there to help you in class and out, if you have been having some sort of pain or small injury, ask one of us for a few exercises you can do for some rehabilitation or prehabilitation, we are more than happy to help.

These specific warm ups don’t have to be long and complicated, they will only take 5 minutes, and most of the time they don’t take much effort so you can still have a chat with your friends while doing them.

It is important, especially if you are prone to small but relatively common injuries, to do these little extra tidbits so that you can stay healthy, happy and get the most out of your training each and every day.

In the coming weeks I will be releasing some general, knee, shoulder, ankle, hip and lower back specific 5 minute warm ups that you can make use of before (or after) class each day to help you get ready for your workout.