Logan Steele
Priming your muscles before a workout is an important step to prepare your body for the activity you're about to undertake. It's more than just a warm-up; it's targeted movement prep that enables you to perform exercises more effectively, thereby reducing your risk of injury and improving your performance. For example, if you're about to perform a heavy lift, you can do an exercise that activates the muscles you plan to use, such as a jump squat before a barbell squat. This helps to lubricate the joints and fire up the right muscles, ensuring you're moving optimally and building strength and muscle memory.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Purpose | To prepare the body for physical activity and enable it to perform exercises more effectively |
| Benefits | Improves strength, builds muscle, prevents and rehabs injuries, improves performance, reduces the risk of injury, improves overall health and aesthetics |
| Techniques | Isometrics, dynamic tension, explosive exercises, plyometrics, med ball throws, isolation exercises, light physical activity, stretching, drills |
| Muscle Groups | Traps, lats, glutes, hamstrings, quads, fast-twitch muscles, stabilizers, rotator cuffs, upper back, shoulders |
| Exercises | Squats, deadlifts, bench presses, hamstring curls, jump squats, barbell squats, straight-arm lat pulldowns, chest flyes, banded pull-aparts, cable face-pulls, pull-ups |
| Timing | Before and after a workout; 5-10 minutes for post-priming |
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Warm-up exercises
Warming up your muscles before a workout is essential to get your body ready for action and prevent injuries. A good warm-up routine should include exercises that target the specific muscle groups you plan to work on and address any individual problem areas. For example, if you're planning to do squats, you should prepare your hips and knees with exercises like hamstring curls on a stability ball or a 90/90 drill. This will help to lubricate the hip and knee joints and improve your range of motion.
If you're looking to improve your bench press, you can try exercises that target the chest, such as chest flyes, or focus on your shoulders with controlled shoulder circles and banded pull-aparts. If you're experiencing tightness or soreness in your arms and chest, you can add a few more movements to your warm-up routine, such as controlled hip circles.
For those who spend a lot of time at a desk, it's important to address the tightness in the chest and shoulder muscles that can result from being hunched over a keyboard all day. A dynamic warm-up routine that includes exercises like pull-ups, pull-aparts, and deadlifts can help correct negative movement patterns and reduce the risk of injury.
If you're aiming for maximal strength, consider including plyometric exercises or med ball throws to prime your fast-twitch muscle fibres. These quick, explosive movements will help prepare your body for heavy lifts. For example, you can try doing jump squats before attempting barbell squats.
Finally, don't forget to spend some time post-priming after your workout. Just like a warm-up helps activate your muscles, spending 5-10 minutes post-priming will help solidify the movement patterns you've achieved during your workout, improving your body's memory and overall skeletal health.
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Isolation exercises
Additionally, isolation exercises can enhance the mind-muscle connection, leading to better muscle activation. They can be used before a workout to properly activate and fire the muscles, reinforcing proper patterns during the lift. For example, performing a 90/90 drill before squatting can help engage the hips and improve their range of motion.
Overall, isolation exercises are a valuable tool for priming the muscles, improving strength and definition, and correcting muscle imbalances. They can be tailored to all fitness levels and are a great addition to any workout routine.
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Plyometrics
History of Plyometrics
The term "plyometrics" was coined by Fred Wilt, a former US Olympic long-distance runner, after observing Soviet athletes' preparation for track and field events in the 1980s. He noticed their practice of performing numerous jumps during warm-ups, which he believed contributed to their success. Wilt collaborated with trainer Michael Yessis to promote plyometrics, and it has since gained widespread popularity.
Types of Plyometrics
There are two main variations of plyometrics:
- The Shock Method: Developed by Russian scientist Yuri Verkhoshansky, this method involves an athlete dropping from a height, experiencing a "shock" upon landing, leading to a forced eccentric contraction, and then immediately transitioning to a concentric contraction as they jump upward. This type of plyometrics focuses on the extremely short time frame of the landing and takeoff, typically within 0.1 to 0.2 seconds. The depth jump is a popular exercise in this category.
- General Jump Training: This version, more prevalent in the United States, encompasses any form of jump, regardless of execution time. It includes various exercises such as jump squats, one-leg hops, jumping onto a box or bench, or jumping over cones.
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Post-priming
Spending 5-10 minutes after your workout on post-priming will help solidify the muscle memory of the movement patterns you learned during your workout. This will improve your mind-muscle connection, enhance your muscle recruitment patterns, and lead to a healthier skeletal frame.
Priming exercises help activate targeted muscles, enhancing neuromuscular communication and recruitment. This activation prepares the muscles to generate force more efficiently during the subsequent exercise, maximizing performance potential.
Priming exercises can also enhance motor control and coordination. By activating the specific muscles involved in the upcoming activity, you establish a better mind-muscle connection, improving the efficiency and accuracy of movement patterns.
In addition, priming exercises often include dynamic stretches and mobility drills, which help improve joint mobility and flexibility. This can increase your range of motion, allowing you to move more freely and safely during exercise, and reducing the risk of injury.
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Isometrics
Isometric exercises are a form of training where the muscles contract but do not change length, nor do the joints. An example of an isometric exercise is a plank, where you contract the muscles in your core, legs, and upper body to hold yourself up while remaining in the same position.
Isometric exercises are an excellent way to build muscular endurance, the ability to sustain exercise for a period of time. They can also promote muscular strength, defined as the muscle's ability to exert force against resistance. For example, when performing an exercise like a squat, it's easy to lose tension at the bottom or top of the movement. However, if you perform pause squats or isometric squats, you can increase the tension in your legs, back, and core. Isometric exercises dramatically increase time under tension, which helps to build muscle.
Isometric exercises can be used as a warm-up to help prime your mind-muscle connection, which should increase the value you get from your training overall. For example, when you're getting ready to deadlift, doing some extended holds at any position that feels unstable will help bolster your comfort and strength later on when the weight is added.
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Frequently asked questions
Muscle priming is targeted movement preparation that enables you to perform exercises more effectively. It helps you move in an optimal way, reducing the risk of injury and improving performance.
Muscle priming helps you build more muscle, prevent injury, and rehab from injury. It also helps you build intensity, maintain workload, and progress in load, duration, and frequency of exercise.
To prime your muscles before a workout, you can do 1-2 exercises for each area you lack range. For example, if you are preparing to squat, you can do a 90/90 drill to engage your hips.
Spending 5-10 minutes after your workout to post-prime will help solidify the signal you have achieved throughout your workout. This can be done by focusing on drills addressing that day's movements, which can increase a better mind-muscle connection.
