The World’s Greatest Stretch!

-April 25th, 2012-

The most important part of your workout is the warm up.

If you do not warm up properly before your workout, practice, or game your performance is going to suffer.

You’ll be at higher risk of injury and your muscles will not be ready to perform to their potential.

The warm up is about more than just stretching. It is to prepare you to perform at your best.

The way you warm up for a practice or game is the same way you should warm up before a workout. A dynamic stretch should be done that hits all the major muscles, increases joint range of motion, and increases the temperature of the muscles.

My warmups with my athletes before workouts last between 15-20 minutes, and include lots of mobility/stability work and muscle activation.

Below is a video of ‘The World’s Greatest Stretch’ from Athletes Performance. AP is the leader in preparing College football players for the NFL Combine. They know what they are doing!

Listen to Strength Coach Nick Winkelman break down the stretch and it’s common mistakes, and try performing this stretch before your next training session and see if you feel more prepared to train hard!

This is a stretch that I added to the warmup for the Toronto Rock this year that they perform before every game and practice now.

Do You Have a Stretch That You Like Better? If You Do Let Me Know In The Comments Below!P.S. I wrote an entire Article on Warm Ups. Check it out and see a sample warmup included at the end: The Warm Up is the Workout!

Tags: Athletes Performance, dynamic stretch, Elbow to instep Lunge, hip mobility, Lacrosse warm up, movement preperation, Nick Winkleman, Worlds Greatetest Stretch