I do my best thinking when I am driving. Is it dangerous? Depends on what your definition is but...having reflection periods are important for your growth and understanding.
If you have ever received training from our facility, you will quickly find that I have an affinity for warm ups. Some call it obsessive but anecdotally, that is the "secret" sauce to the majority of our programs. We all know that warming up is important from an adult perspective due to the protective nature of simply moving your body a little bit before you hit the weights. This is most likely due to the increase in body temperature and the tissue extensibility that occurs as a result of that increased temperature...
Our youth are often left out of the equation because we see them as resilient or pliable. They bounce back quickly despite landing on their heads and before you know it, are back to running around and being hooligans. In my years of watching our kids at the gym play their sports, there is a lack in proper warm ups. Even the ones that are in place leave a lot to be desired. So...in my unnecessarily convoluted thought process, I asked myself, why?
At a very basic level, warmups serve to prepare the tissue for the demands that are about to be placed on them. If we peel back a few layers, and just watch, we see something far more interesting happening.
Some studies have produced a 35% injury reduction risk simple when kids warm up. To me, that is mindboggling but easy to believe.
I think this happens for several reasons.
When you take a young untrained population and put them through a well thought out warm up, the training effects are far greater than what i listed above. We are seeing improved balance, added strength, improved landing mechanics, improved posture etc...In return, kids can get stronger and improve at a much faster rate than if they didn't have those silly warm ups.
To further my line of thought, warm ups are perfect way to add in protective measures or sneak in some very specific "corrective" work without eating up too much of the session time. You are micro dosing things that can have a significant adaptative effect without realizing it.
