Selling the warm-up after years and years of doing the same thing is tough. If you don’t sell it, it will not get done well, especially if you are not there. I have written articles with illustrations and citations, I have blogged over and over again. The warm-ups I see now are embarrassing to our profession. Warm-ups screen, prepare, educate, create dialogue, and get athletes focused for the task of training. Yet the culture of not wanting to be the bad guy and not hold athletes accountable is the norm. Nobody wants to warm-up long enough, correctly, and consistently. I don’t blame people as I get bored myself of doing drills or simple exercises. Still, if you don’t warm-up you will pull.
The research shows that the body wants to stay at homeostasis so with all the smart fabrics cooling off athletes, the internal research of core temperature, thermography, skin sensors, and even some TMG studies with power testing, warm-ups must be quality to be effective. The above photo is an example that the body keeps things regulated on the surface, so core temperature is a needed way to evaluate things. One trick is look at the shoes, note pre and post changes to know when the bird is cooked! We foam roll after training sometimes and still do static stretches when necessary, I think a lot of teams are assuming that things are happening without evidence of the truth. I am always trying to do the basics better because the most glaring problems are the ones that are not sexy to solve. Cook the bird to the bone!