I’m a Strength Coach: This 7-Minute Warm-Up Boosts Lifts More Than Pre-Workout Ever Did

Pre-workout supplements are all the rage in the fitness industry currently.

We see sports nutrition brands launching new, stronger, and more delicious flavors of energy drinks each week. Heck, several YouTubers and fitness influencers are coming out with their own range of pre-training potions.

All this hype makes people think that it’s better to skip the gym rather than train without consuming a pre-workout supp.

While these stimulants might give you a quick energy boost, they often lead to mid-workout crashes, loss of focus, and jitteriness.

As a personal trainer with almost two decades in the trenches, and who has tried just about every pre-training drink under the sun, I can attest that a balanced warm-up routine can be as effective at priming your body for heavier lifts, minus the side effects.

In this article, I share my top-secret seven-minute warm-up routine that will help wake up your muscles, lubricate your joints, and fire up your nervous system before a training session. We have a lot to unpack, so sit tight and read on.

The Problem with Pre-Workout Supplements

People usually rank a pre-workout supp based on the kick they get after downing a scoop. Supplement brands know this and add enough caffeine and other stimulants in their products that could put down a horse.

These doses get your heart pounding like a drum, and you’re sometimes sweating before you even touch a barbell.

Sometimes, you’re so psyched up that you completely skip your warm-up as you feel ready to crush some weights. This significantly increases your injury risk.

The worst part about this is that once you start relying on pre-workout supps, your body starts craving that artificial kick, and skipping a dose can lead to a negative impact on your performance.

I tell my clients to think of consuming pre-workouts as borrowing energy and paying it back with interest.

I’ve watched clients panic after they realize they forgot their pre-workout tub, and then frantically start asking around for an instant coffee sachet. If this isn’t addiction, what is?

The Fix

I leveraged my experience working with lifters of all experience levels to design a short, targeted warm-up routine. It has helped athletes hit personal records while reporting healthy joints, tendons, and connective tissues.

Most people perform basic movements like arm and hip circles in the name of warm-ups. However, they are only scratching the surface with this approach.

An effective warm-up routine should focus on three crucial aspects.

My seven-minute warm-up routine prioritizes mobility drills to loosen the tight tissues, joint activation to stabilize your frame, and neural priming to boost your mind-muscle connection and overall performance.

The 7-Minute Warm-Up Protocol

Tight hips, stiff shoulders, or a sleepy nervous system don’t vanish with a scoop of powder. I’ve honed a seven-minute workout, split into three phases, that primes your body for peak performance.

This protocol is designed to systematically prepare your body for peak performance. It progresses from gentle mobility to specific joint activation and finishes with neural priming to ensure peak muscle contractions during your strength training workout.

I recommend using a resistance band in this session as it can help maximize target muscle stimulation within this short period.

Without further ado, here is the seven-minute split that should be a part of your fitness routine:

Phase & Total Time	Exercise	Duration (seconds)
Phase 1: Mobility (2 Minutes)	Leg Swings (Forward/Backward)	30s per leg
	Arm Circles	30s per arm
Phase 2: Joint Activation (3 Minutes)	Glute Bridges	60s
	Bird-Dog	60s
	Banded Pull-Aparts	60s
Phase 3: Neural Priming (2 Minutes)	Pogo Jumps	30s
	Active Recovery	15s
	High Knees	30s
	Active Recovery	15s
	Bodyweight Squat Jumps	30s

Phase 1: Mobility (2 minutes)

Now that you know the gist of the workout, it is time to break it down.

This section is focused on loosening the tight muscles and boosting your range of motion to ensure optimal target muscle fiber recruitment and subsequent adaptations.

Here is how to perform each exercise for maximum effectiveness:

• Leg Swings (Forward/Backward): Stand with your side toward a wall with your hands on it for support. Swing one leg forward and backward like a pendulum while keeping your torso upright and core braced. Prioritize achieving a deep hamstring and hip flexor stretch during the swings.
• Arm Circles: Stand upright with your arms stretched out to the sides and parallel to the floor. Drive your palms out and start rotating your arms in small circles. Slowly increase the size of the circles for optimal shoulder recruitment.

Phase 2: Joint Activation (3 minutes)

It is now time to lubricate and stabilize your joints so you can handle heavy weights safely. A meta-analysis found that a warm-up routine, especially one incorporating joint mobility exercises, can reduce injury risk by 30-48% in athletes. (2)

• Glute Bridges: Lie on your back with knees bent, feet flat on the floor hip-width apart. Brace your core and drive through your heels to lift your hips toward the ceiling. Contract your glutes at the top for two seconds before returning to the starting position.
• Bird-Dog: Get into a quadruped position with hands under shoulders and knees under hips. Extend your right arm forward, and your left leg backward simultaneously while keeping your back flat and hips level. This will fire up your core stabilizers and improve coordination.
• Banded Pull-Aparts: Grab a resistance band with an overhand grip at shoulder level with your arms extended so they are parallel to the floor. Pull the band apart by squeezing your shoulder blades together and hold the peak contraction for a moment before returning.

Phase 3: Neural Priming (2 minutes)

Working on your CNS before a session can help generate explosive power during a session. This can increase your overall training volume and intensity, getting you the best bang for your training buck.

Remember, the goal of this seven-minute routine isn’t to go through the motions mindlessly. You must focus on stretching and contracting the muscles with each rep to unlock your maximum potential. To ensure this, I’ve added a 15-second active recovery window after the first and second exercises in this split, so you can catch your breath and give the exercises your best.

• Pogo Jumps: Stand with your feet close together. Perform small, quick, and repetitive jumps on the balls of your feet while keeping your legs relatively straight. These jumps should be powered by your ankles and calves. Aim for speed and reactivity, not height.
• High Knees: Stand erect with your core braced. Drive your knees up toward your chest in a rapid, alternating fashion. You should look like you’re running in place. This will increase your heart rate and prepare your body for explosive movements.
• Bodyweight Squat Jumps: Get into the starting position with a shoulder-width stance. Lower into a quarter squat and immediately explode upwards, jumping as high as you can. Land softly on the balls of your feet to absorb the impact. This will prime your legs for your workout.

Use this workout as a template and tailor it to suit your exact training needs. Generic warm-up routines don’t target the joints or muscles you need the most during a targeted workout, reducing their effectiveness.

For instance, double down on band pull-aparts and shoulder openers while warming up for a chest workout. This will also help dial in your form by boosting your mind-muscle connection. My clients report better muscle pumps when they do targeted warm-ups before a session.

When done correctly, you’ll feel strong and confident to crush your workout.

Why This Warm-Up Outperforms Pre-Workout

Don’t limit warm-ups to getting you ready for a particular training session. In fact, they should be looked upon as a tool to build a foundation for long-term strength. You must focus on movement quality and nervous system readiness for optimal training performance and recovery.

Pre-workout supps don’t prepare your body. They merely mask your weaknesses.

My question to you is simple: Why let a supplement dictate your performance when your body already has all the tools to excel?

Pre-workout supps promise endless energy, but deliver diminishing returns. You might start with half a scoop of a formula, but you’ll soon find yourself downing up to two servings to achieve the same initial effects.

Worse, these products don’t come cheap. A potent supp can set you back by $100-200 each month. This is money that could be spent on more productive things.

How to Implement the Warm-Up in Your Routine

The effectiveness of this warm-up routine will ultimately come down to its implementation.

Since this warm-up flow only takes seven minutes, you can squeeze it into any strength training routine.

You can do it in the comfort of your home if you don’t prefer spending time in the stretching area of your gym. However, you must do it just before you leave for the gym, and your travel time is less than 15 minutes.

You could also swap out your 10-minute treadmill slog for this dynamic warm-up.

Also, learn to listen to your body. Extend this mobility session by 2-5 minutes if your muscles and joints feel extra stiff or if you will be chasing 1RMs in the workout.

Alternatively, you can perform a five-minute warm-up flow on your lighter days.

Common Mistakes To Avoid

Most people tend to take warm-up flows too lightly and don’t pay too much attention to them. They get into a comfortable lunge position and use this time to chat up with their gym buddies or check their Instagram feeds.

This is invaluable time flushed down the toilet.

Treat your warm-ups like a sacred ritual. Use this time to get into your zone and focus on achieving a deep mind-muscle connection, which will carry over to your actual workout. Research shows that muscle pumps can ignite greater hypertrophy after several weeks of resistance training. (3)

Feel free to take a few minutes at the end of your warm-up flow to practice any new exercises that you might be performing in your workout. This will shorten the learning curve by making the movement mechanics second nature, helping you get the most out of each lift.

Conclusion

You don’t need a pre-workout to feel energized or focused. Stimulants trick you into feeling ready, but they don’t warm your muscles, mobilize your joints, or prime your nervous system for heavy lifts.

This dynamic seven-minute warm-up routine outperforms any stimulant and tackles readiness at its core. It’ll prep your body for peak performance without the jitters and crashes of pre-workout drinks. Stay consistent and you’ll see the results in no time. Best of luck!

References:

1. Racinais S, Cocking S, Périard JD. Sports and environmental temperature: From warming-up to heating-up. Temperature (Austin). 2017 Aug 4;4(3):227-257. doi: 10.1080/23328940.2017.1356427. PMID: 28944269; PMCID: PMC5605167.
2. Okobi OE, Evbayekha EO, Ilechie E, Iroro J, Nwafor JN, Gandu Z, Shittu HO. A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials on the Effectiveness of Exercise Intervention in Preventing Sports Injuries. Cureus. 2022 Jun 20;14(6):e26123. doi: 10.7759/cureus.26123. PMID: 35875288; PMCID: PMC9298606.

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