If you have been following my blog or the gym for some time, you know that I am a huge fan of warming up. This may seem silly but a vast majority of gym goers forgo their warm up and just head to the bar for bench press Monday. I have highlighted this more for our adult population but today, I want to talk about our youth athletes.
Warm-ups are a non-negotiable when it comes to youth athletes
In short, warm ups are meant optimize your subsequent exercise bout and decrease injury risk. In my experience with our youth sector, warm ups are a good strength tool.
Notable training effects are improved balance, deceleration techniques and added strength. For a kid who has never trained before, body weight lunges, squats, skips, and jumps will go a long way in terms of building a great foundation of movement for years to come.
The Study
Fortunately there is a meta analysis investigating this very topic. “Effectiveness of Warm-Up Intervention Programs to Prevent Sports Injuries among Children and Adolescents.” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9140806/
In short, this study found that with a proper warm-up, injury risk was decreased by 36 percent. This is huge as youth sports injury rates have skyrocketed over the years.
My Thoughts
Warm ups are a great way to introduce small dosages of exercises. And as coaches, you cannot always be the hammer. You need to figure out what is the best for each athlete in terms of their overall development. This includes putting personal bias aside and be that selfless leader. You might want to get right to the dead lifts or med balls, but a well coached lunge in a warm up will serve your athletes much greater in the long run.
The variety of exercises in this study are interesting as well. In older athletes or adults, warm ups serve to increase body temperature and in return tissue extensibility. As I stated above, I think warm ups for kids serves a much more specific purpose. And, with a variety of movements it makes programming easier. Plus, with variety, people do not get as bored as easily.
The researchers in this study noted that the compliance in the intervention group was much higher than in the other group. We see this a lot in the gym and when we go off campus to schools. When kids are presented with a well structured plan and they get results from that plan, they are going to comply. The higher your buy in, the greater your outcomes.
In closing, warm ups are not just a 15 minutes of foam rolling and scrolling through social media. It serves a purpose. It may seem silly, but…if you can do something that takes ten extra minutes and can reduce injury by 36 percent…would you do it?
Have an athlete that needs to be taken to the next level? Make sure you schedule your free consultation at http://www.getjdfit.com
