Ive just started the crossfit training regime and wanted to know what the general warmup is that you guys use? sorry if this has been covered before or if this is in the wrong place, still getting used to the message boards

Re: Warm up

Aesir,

Aesir - 24 September 2007 06:19 AM

Ive just started the crossfit training regime and wanted to know what teh general warmup is that you guys use? sorry if this has been covered before or if this is in the wrong place, still getting used to the message boards

The “official” Crossfit warmup (from the main site crossfit.com)

“3 rounds of 10-15 reps of
Samson Stretch (do the Samson Stretch once each round for 15-30 seconds)
Overhead Squat with broomstick
Sit-up
Back-extension
Pull-up
Dip
Note that for a workout that’s dip or pullup-centric, you might want to do something else in the warmup. “

And yeah, that looks like a workout.  So if you’re scaling the WODs, scale this to something reasonable, like one round.  Or three rounds but fewer reps. 

You may need to make substitutions.  For instance, the back extension is done on a special piece of equipment, therefore, since we can’t get everyone in the class on that all at once, we sub “supermans” 

I also like to add a bit of running, say 800 meters prior.  Not fast, just a nice trot.

Re: Warm up

TexasPatrick - 24 September 2007 06:30 AM

I also like to add a bit of running, say 800 meters prior.  Not fast, just a nice trot.

It should be noted that TP likes running and is quite good at it. The rest of us still often run or row for our warm-ups, we just substitute “stumbling awkwardly” for the “nice trot” bit.  :D

I understand a Brand X favourite is a 400m run with squats, burpees or press ups every 100m.

You can also look at the Burgener warmup for Olympic Lift centric workouts. I used to have a link for that handy someplace. Post if you want it.

Or make your own warm-up up. There are no hard and fast rules about this.

If you don’t have a favourite, an appropriately scaled CFWU is hard to beat though. I had a discussion with Kempie about just this and he pointed out that the CFWU is a very good practise session for many of the common Crossfit movements, a “grease the groove” workout is the common term, so lightly covering those off in the warm-ups is a very good thing.

alright cool thanks i think ill scale it to just one set of everything above for now as i don’t want to burn out before i get to actually start the workout and take it from there.  Also if you have the link you spoke of that would be cool, cheers for the feedback

Rather than one round of the warm-up, I would suggest 3 or 4 rounds of relatively short sets.  This will let you get a little more volume in while avoiding failure and also provide a more thorough “warm-up” effect.

Cheers, kempie

Definitely what Kempie said!

Sorry if I in any way implied you should cut back the number of rounds.

Burgener warm-up:
Here it is in words
 
Here’s the “official” Crossfit video of it performed by Coach Mike Burgener’s daughter Sage and narrated by Coach Burgener himself http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/cfj-nov-05/burgener-warm-up.wmv
And here it is on YouTube performed by Andy Petranek  
Perform 3 reps of each movement, Andy only demonstrates two, but his site says to do 3, as do the other sites linked above.

Metric - 24 September 2007 06:48 PM

Definitely what Kempie said!

Sorry if I in any way implied you should cut back the number of rounds.

Nah, that was me.  But Kempie is right.  Rolling through the stretches and things 3-4 times for lower reps would be better than once for w/up purposes.  I find that my squats benefit greatly from multiple rounds of the sampson stretch.  But, that’s why Kempie gets the big bucks, and why he gives advice and I take it . . .

The 400M run is indeed a favorite part of many Brand X warmups, although I use “favorite” loosely.

Coach Martin (Garddawg on the forum) is also a fan of working pushups and air squats into the warmup. 20 each, if memory serves. But as other people have suggested, even warmups can be scaled.

When I started CrossFit, I assumed that a 400M run followed by 20 pushups and 20 squats was a workout, not a warmup. Little did I know.

Found this on the HQ message board
 

I would strongly agree with scaling back the CFWU. There are many threads on the forum re: the CFWU, read them all! I did, it helped. Don’t get caught up in bodybuilding ideas in your thought process. The warm-up is a place to practice things. Vary it up. Start working your hand stand push ups by raising your feet off the deck every other workout instead of dips. DO the Burgener warm-up instead of pull ups/dips every now and again (of if there’s a number of either in the WOD). Switch out the squat for a very light deadlift or the front squat/over head squat. Add box jumps, jump rope intervals, whatever.
Keep it fun, these exercises both warm the body and increase your skills and ability, keep that in mind and stay conscious of your body the entire time. You do want to have gas in the tank for the WOD, but that will increase.

ok cool thanks ill do that then