August 23, 2025 • 20 mins
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Traditional warmups like treadmill running are outdated and less effective for strength training (and jiu jitsu). Warmups should follow three steps:
• Step 1: Remove the handbrakes by addressing mobility limitations from daily activities
• Step 2: Activate your nervous system with dynamic movements
• Step 3: Strategically ramp up to your working weights
• A proper warmup only takes 10-15 minutes but dramatically improves performance
The same principles apply to both weight training and BJJ preparation. Focus your warmup on the specific demands of your upcoming training session. Take the extra time and prepare yourself.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
A good martial artist does not become tense but ready
.
Essentially, at this point thefight is over, so you pretty
much flow with the goal.
Who is worthy to be trustedwith the secret to limitless
power?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
The three steps to a successful warmup for BJJ or the
weight room.
Now people tend to skip warmups.
Hey, I forgive you this time,but you are leaving gains on the
table by not warming up.
Right, and we've got to talkabout it, joe.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, I think my take on people going to the gym and
stuff is that, on the whole,people are getting better at it.
We're getting more educated.
I think we're exposed to moretraining content through social
media and stuff, and so you know, you see people, more people
doing better strength exercisesthese days.
Sure, still see plenty ofpeople doing total bullshit, but
(01:12):
I think en masse it's gettingbetter.
But I think a lot of folks arestill lost about that initial 20
minutes when they get to thegym.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Look, the classic thing which I find is actually
holding people back.
People go oh, just go get onthe treadmill.
You're like dude, why?
Why?
No, I've got to elevate my bodytemperature.
You're like no, that's notgoing to make you stronger.
That's what a trainer told meto do 15 years ago, when I had a
complimentary PT session aspart of my $17 a week 24-hour
gym membership.
(01:40):
Don't get me wrong.
Yes, you do need to elevateyour body temperature, it's true
.
Yes, I agree.
But don't think doing jumpingjacks or running on a treadmill
or some bullshit is going tomake you stronger or better
prepared for BJJ.
It's just.
That is not the right way tocome at it.
Let's talk about how we can, ina very short period of time,
(02:02):
get people primed to get fuckingstrong.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, so like I guess the other part of it too is and
I'm thinking particularly aboutpeople using our programs when
you are newer in the strengthjourney, you're not lifting a
huge amount of weight, right?
You're not doing high intensitystrength training yet, so your
warmups don't need to be as bigas when you're further down the
(02:25):
line and have more trainingunder your belt.
You're going to be liftingbigger loads.
Sure, you're going to need amore considerable warmup.
Yeah, but the same principlesapply.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Definitely, and it's more just the habit.
I think that's the thing likejujitsu in some ways and we've
discussed it before you can kindof get away with coming in,
like maybe you come in a bitlate, just do the first little.
Oh, I missed the warmup.
And so, even though we knowthat this can, over time, lead
to injury, it's not necessarilythe way straight up.
(02:56):
But if you're someone who'strying to get stronger, doing a
really good warmup, that ticksthese three boxes will set you
up for strength, strength,success, as opposed to just kind
of wandering in a bit of thisand then, yeah, I'll just pick
the bar up, you know.
So, first step, the thing thatwe've got to acknowledge is that
if you've just sat in the carfor half an hour, an hour,
(03:20):
you've driven to the gym,whatever you got stuck in
traffic, you're on the train,you've been sitting down all day
.
You've driven to the gym,whatever you got stuck in
traffic, you're on the train,you've been sitting down all day
.
We got to limber up, like wehave to remove the fucking
handbrakes, folks, becauseyou've been in these postures
and the positions.
That doesn't mean it'sconducive to lifting.
So the thing that I always tryto do for myself, and if I'm
(03:41):
working with anybody to helpthem, it's to remove these
things which may limit theirability to be strong.
So let me explain.
My example of this is if someoneis squatting or deadlifting and
they need strong hip extension,if they've been sitting down
all day, typically there'll bethis shortened position at the
(04:01):
hip, you know, and so spending abit of time doing some lunging
and doing some work which opensup through the front of the hip
and gets the glutes switched onactually serves like as a bit of
a correction for that.
And then after that they'relike oh, they stand a bit taller
, a bit straighter, and theirbody is primed to now do the
thing.
Have you got something that youlike to do with folks, joe?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head, Like
front of the hip, a little bitof like squatting, like just
getting into a squat, hangingout there a bit pushing the
knees out, opening up the hips,lengthening the spine and some
hanging, Hanging's great.
You know, I'm thinking of likethe three things that I will
kind of just habitually dousually while I'm thinking about
(04:43):
what I'm actually going to do.
Sure, I'll just start doingthat.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
My go-to for the upper body is a dislocate Like I
love a dislocate whether you'vegot a piece of timber like a
dowel or a band just because itdoes stretch the pecs.
It opens up the chest, but italso gets the upper back, rear
delts, rhomboids, it gets allthat fired, fired up and it also
gets you a bit straighter.
Yeah, gets the thoracic spineopened up and and it really
(05:09):
ticks a lot of boxes without alot of effort.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, I like that yeah, um, but absolutely like.
I think as you become more intune with what your body's
feeling, you do get a sense ofwhat you need that day.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
And you also start to anticipate what you're going to
be doing in the session, right,yeah, like say, if I'm, um, if
I'm going into the gym, I'vebeen working standards, the new
standards program lately, right.
And if I'm going in and I knowthat it's the upper body day, I
don't spend much time warm likeloosening up my lower body,
right right, I'm, I'm focused,I'm you know hanging.
I'm doing some tabletop press,some scat push-ups.
(05:44):
I'm doing some, you know, somecuban rotations, like it's all
shoulder and upper body, focused.
Likewise on the lower body day.
We're all about the legs, right?
So it's.
It's, I think, um for thegeneral person.
Keep it general.
But as your training starts tobranch off into areas of more
specificity, you can start totake your, your warmup towards
those directions too.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
For sure.
The next major checkbox youneed to look at is nervous
system activation.
It's getting your body awakeand ready for the task at hand.
So talk about optimum arousal.
I'm not talking about thebedroom, folks.
I'm talking about getting yourmuscles fired up, so that can
look like a variety of things,whether that be broad jumps,
(06:29):
hops, kind of bouncing, somedynamic work through the upper
body, whether that be like adynamic pushup or you're doing
some rotational work.
Explosive, like fast.
Stuff works really well forthis, doesn't it?
Yeah, it gets the nervoussystem going, because what this
actually does, is it Even justsquat jumps on the spot.
This demands more of yournervous system than just a
(06:51):
normal squat.
By pulling all these resourcesin and being like hey, body,
wake up, get these musclesworking, by switching on as many
muscle fibers as you can.
By doing this dynamic work, itis better prepared to take load.
Then you will be safer andbetter set up to produce force.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, I famously like when I learned this concept as
a young PT and I'm sure there'sa fancy name for it, but I was
like doing it on everyone.
And I remember I used to trainmy girlfriend.
At the time I trained her momand her little sister and they
trained with me for years.
They were great and the mom awonderful woman.
(07:33):
She started her trainingjourney with me in her late what
was she?
Early 50s I guess, and so itwas like she'd had three kids
and it wasn't?
we had to be respectful of a lot.
Anyway we used to train in thispark at surry hills and the.
What I had learned was you know,if you take a big, heavy
(07:53):
resistance band and you wrap itaround someone's waist, oh yeah,
and then you hold on to that,so you're kind of holding them
back and you get them to run ashard as they can, yes, and so I
was like, hey, I want you to runas hard as you can, for, like,
I want you to get from there tothere.
It's like 25 meters underresistance and I'm just going to
be like hanging back on you andmaking it hard.
And so, yeah, you know, she didit right, driving with the legs
(08:15):
, driving, driving, you know,got it.
And then I was like, great, nowwe take the band off.
And I was like, hey, reallycool thing, now what I want you
to do is just come back to thestart and I want you to sprint
it again, but I'm without theband, I just want you to feel
how much faster you are.
And she's like all right, andshe fucking took off so quick
that she lost.
She basically like she hit theground.
(08:35):
She hit the concrete.
Because she took off so fast,her balance was all fucked up,
couldn't control it, and she waslike, oh and like, hit the
concrete.
And I was like, oh God, likemiddle-aged woman hitting the
concrete in a PT session.
I'm like that's terrible.
And she was like, what'd youfucking do to me, you know?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
and I was like, see man, see how activated you are
powerful you're primed thatnervous system, perfect example
yeah no, the there there is aterm for this and, and you know,
some people might knowpotentiation post activate, post
activation, potentiation, right.
So typically you know, folksmight do like a heavy lift, like
three squats, and then do somesquat jumps, because your
nervous system is so G'd up andit's true Like if you impose a
(09:20):
dynamic demand, your body isthen prepared to do something
where your nervous system isrequired to do more.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
But my favorite way to go about that too is because
I want to shorten the warmup isand I know we'll talk about this
next but when I'm doing mywarmup sets of whatever exercise
in during those warmup sets, inthe rest periods, where I don't
actually need much rest causethey're warmup sets- yeah.
I'll do some of the some of thejumping work or whatever
Dynamic work, yeah, and I find Ijust kind of superset that for
(09:45):
maybe three rounds or so andthen I'm at my heavy shit.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
For sure, and this is the other thing too and you
know, John, I've talked aboutthis before we're doing
something dynamic like a hop ora jump, it actually requires
more of all the smaller fibersaround your knees and ankles,
which means, proprioceptively,you are actually better balanced
, You're more switched on.
So the thing that we startedincluding off the advice of
(10:12):
Joe's knee specialist is hopping, Just standing on the spot, or
some lateral hops before youstart doing jujitsu, just to get
everything switched on.
Because even though we don'tjump necessarily a lot in
jujitsu, or we don't think ofdoing that, even though we hop,
if we're defending a single legor anything like this, it's a
really good way to make sureeverything is prepared before
(10:34):
you load it up with a person oryou load it up with a heavy
weight.
And so this brings us to thethird point, which is the idea
of a ramp up.
Now, I actually learned thismany years ago from one of the
guys from Westside Barbell, andhe was so staunch I mean, most
(10:55):
guys from that gym are but hewas talking about how Louis
Simmons got them all to docertain strategic ramp up
weights before they hit theirmax working weight.
And I know a lot of people whojust don't do that.
They don't.
They might do one light set butthen just like, if they're
deadlifting a hundred kilos,they just jump to a hundred and
you're like what are you?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
what are you doing?
Folks are like no, I don't wantto use all my energy, I don't
want to waste energy.
Yeah, I'll save it for the, forthe working sets.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
But here's the thing you have to consider that the
ramp up is part of your warmupand you're also checking in with
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(11:43):
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(12:04):
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Here's the thing Even thoughlast time 100 kilos was normal
or easy, today might bedifferent.
Today it might be easier or itmight be a lot harder for
various reasons.
So doing the ramp up is a wayto check in with yourself
(12:24):
Progressively.
Yeah, because if you, let's say, for you, you know your max
deadlift is a hundred kilos andyou do the bar and you know 40
kilos and 60, you're ramping up,you get to 18, you're like I'm
struggling, like I should beable to do this very easily five
times I can.
I can barely do it.
That's feedback.
But hey, maybe today is not theday that we do this, because
(12:48):
maybe you do need to back it off.
So I feel that like People arelike.
I don't want to know that.
I want to just I just want tolift it.
Yeah, I just want to bulge mydiscs.
Okay, Stop holding me back.
But no, the ramp up is and thisis the thing I learned from
people way smarter and waystronger than me that the ramp
up is an integral part of thewarmup.
The workout doesn't start untilyou're at your working weight,
(13:10):
so the ramp up is part of thewarmup, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
And you know, yeah, and that thing that some people
mention about, like I don't wantto use all my energy, that's
really silly, because youactually, if you do a good job
of ramping up appropriately, youwill be able to lift the most
yeah, better, whereas if youdon't, if you go in we've all
done this before where you'vekind of shortcutted the workout
(13:33):
for whatever reason you've gonestraight to some hard shit.
It's fucking way harder than itshould be.
You're like man, that that 120kilos today feels gross and
usually you go and do it againthe second time and it feels
totally different.
It's better because your bodyhas felt it and your body has,
yeah, right, like you said, it'slike that's pulled in the
resources to deal with the taskat hand.
(13:53):
Yeah, and this is we got tounderstand this about strength
training that we're doing ahyper specific movement with a
very specific loading.
Like your body, uh, it's veryisolated in terms of what it is
for your movement, and so themore you can be communicating to
your body hey, in a moment I'mgoing to ask you to do this, in
(14:15):
a moment I'm going to ask you todo this the better it's going
to work with you.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Whereas if you shock that thing it's going to hurt.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
You're going to pay a price for it, and here's just
an aside Like I'm pretty boring,pretty methodical in a lot of
ways, but it's Pavlovian right.
Like it's the idea that I'mgearing myself up
psychologically for the task athand.
So having my coffee at acertain time, having some dark
chocolate or having some almondsor something like it's, the
(14:43):
body is like oh shit, are wedoing that thing today, driving
in the car, listening to thecertain music?
It's like I'm a Barbie girl ina Barbie world and I'm just like
yeah fuck heavy deadlifts.
So then when I get to the gym,my body's like, oh, it's fucking
on, like we know.
Now.
This is what's happening, andthe gradual buildup is a
(15:05):
positive feedback loop because Iam setting my intention that,
all right, I'm picking this barup, and each time I'm noticing
how easy or hard is that?
Because it's positive.
If you go to pick up somethingwhich is 80% of your estimated
weight and it feels like nothing, you're like, oh, I'm on today,
this is good, I'm ready, and sothat has a very positive
(15:27):
influence on you being readyphysically and mentally to do
the damn thing.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Yeah, and I guess, just to sort of make that clear,
like, let's take the standardsworkout, the current one I'm
working through as an exampleYou've got you go and you do
your warmup right, where we takecare of a lot of this in the
warmup, and then you've got yourlike primary to upper body
strength exercises right.
You got a pull of some kind anda press of some kind and these
(15:54):
are going to be like these areyour primary exercises.
This is the heavy shit.
So you will do the ramp upright.
If it's a weight like, if it'sa press, you know, if it's a
kettlebell press or bottoms uppress, something like that, you
can just choose the lighterkettlebell, do it that way.
But if it's a pull-up orsomething, you might do some
bent-over rows or some ring rowsor some scap pulls as a way to
get primed for that.
(16:14):
Once you get those exercisesout of the way, you then go to
another set of pressing andpulling exercises.
Your body's already at peakactivation.
You don't need to then doramp-ups for that, no Right, and
it's the same as if it's yoursecond hinge exercise and second
squat.
You did it all in the warmup.
Your body's going really well.
(16:35):
You can pretty much jumpstraight into the heavy shit now
.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Yeah, yeah, and it really, when you're looking at
accessory work, like once you'vedone your primaries, obviously
you want to get the most out ofthem.
But if you've kind of givenyour all to the primary lifts,
accessories you just you're kindof doing what you can and it
doesn't mean you don't You'renot trying to change the world.
No, it doesn't mean you don'trespect them and give them the
(17:00):
best you've got.
But you also appreciate thatlike, okay, I'm now not
operating at full tank, I amwarm and yeah, I can do what I
can, but it really depends onthe day, you know, and how tough
that those primary exerciseswere.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, it's a great way to put it.
Like the majority of yourbandwidth goes to the primary
exercises.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Yes, yeah and look, there's a lot to be gained in
the accessory work.
But when we're talking aboutthese warmups, like when we're
talking about getting yourselfready, that does set you up for
the rest of the workout.
And you know, if you've liftedwell with your kind of first two
lifts and you're feeling good,that sets the tone.
There's nothing worse than youshow up to the gym and you're
(17:41):
like you're trying to get intoit and then you're like you're
having a bit of a shit one andthen you're like, oh, I suck
today, like you can get into abit of a negative spiral, you
know.
And then this can, this cankind of, I guess, lower the tone
and the quality for the wholesession.
So by setting the tone well andwarming up correctly, this can
mean overall it's a bettersession.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
So, um, you know, if we're talking like we've got
three things there, right, liketake the handbrakes off, brakes
off, um, get your nervous systemfired up and then get your ramp
upsets in.
So the ramp upsets, you'redoing your primary exercise
there, so that's the sameexercise.
So you know, in terms of like,how many exercises you'd be
putting into a warm-up.
(18:23):
You know, if we're talkingabout the first two steps there,
what's, what's that look likefor you?
Speaker 1 (18:28):
for me it's generally usually three-ish exercises, so
I will usually do something formy upper body, specific to what
I'm doing, something for myhips, my core and something for
my knees and ankles.
That's usually also just seeing, like, oh, how tired am I today
, some days better than others.
Then I might do one, one, maybetwo, depending on time, of like
(18:54):
a plyometric or a dynamicexercise.
So it probably shakes down tothree to five, but it only takes
, honestly, 10, 15 minutes.
And I think a lot of peoplelike, oh, it seems like so much,
but you're trying to keep itmoving because you are trying to
elevate your body temperatureand you're trying to get to the
thing.
So I think that's the thingthat we talk ourselves out of it
(19:16):
, like, oh, I don't have time,but actually by missing it, then
you kind of you lose theopportunity to be stronger,
potentially.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
But yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, look, I'm about the same and and you know
you're resting during your like.
When you get to the heavy stuffyou're taking big rest periods
generally, so like you have thattime there.
If you've got 10 minutes to doa warmup, do the warmup Like
just fucking bang it out.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Three exercises for it, Like pick a few things that
work well for you, whetherswitching on to okay, we're
going to go do some training now.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yeah, for sure, and, look, it is the smallest
investment you can make to getbig returns from your workout.
So we do all this other stuffright To try and get stronger
and feel better, and I thinkthat this approach is applicable
to jujitsu as well.
Yeah, and we do tend to missout on it, but by taking that
(20:15):
extra 10 minutes before classand limbering up and and geeing
up the nervous system and allthese things, the ramp up is
kind of built into the class.
So, yeah, you, you know, evenif your class does a specific
warmup or games or whatever theydo at your academy, taking a
little bit of time to prep thebody, it goes a long way for you
(20:36):
to be better prepared forjiu-jitsu as well as the gym.
There it is folks, buss, buss,be prepared, gestrown.
A good martial artist does not become tense but ready
.
Essentially, at this point thefight is over, so you pretty
much flow with the goal.
Who is worthy to be trustedwith the secret to limitless
power?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
The three steps to a successful warmup for BJJ or the
weight room.
Now people tend to skip warmups.
Hey, I forgive you this time,but you are leaving gains on the
table by not warming up.
Right, and we've got to talkabout it, joe.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, I think my take on people going to the gym and
stuff is that, on the whole,people are getting better at it.
We're getting more educated.
I think we're exposed to moretraining content through social
media and stuff, and so you know, you see people, more people
doing better strength exercisesthese days.
Sure, still see plenty ofpeople doing total bullshit, but
(01:12):
I think en masse it's gettingbetter.
But I think a lot of folks arestill lost about that initial 20
minutes when they get to thegym.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Look, the classic thing which I find is actually
holding people back.
People go oh, just go get onthe treadmill.
You're like dude, why?
Why?
No, I've got to elevate my bodytemperature.
You're like no, that's notgoing to make you stronger.
That's what a trainer told meto do 15 years ago, when I had a
complimentary PT session aspart of my $17 a week 24-hour
gym membership.
(01:40):
Don't get me wrong.
Yes, you do need to elevateyour body temperature, it's true
.
Yes, I agree.
But don't think doing jumpingjacks or running on a treadmill
or some bullshit is going tomake you stronger or better
prepared for BJJ.
It's just.
That is not the right way tocome at it.
Let's talk about how we can, ina very short period of time,
(02:02):
get people primed to get fuckingstrong.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, so like I guess the other part of it too is and
I'm thinking particularly aboutpeople using our programs when
you are newer in the strengthjourney, you're not lifting a
huge amount of weight, right?
You're not doing high intensitystrength training yet, so your
warmups don't need to be as bigas when you're further down the
(02:25):
line and have more trainingunder your belt.
You're going to be liftingbigger loads.
Sure, you're going to need amore considerable warmup.
Yeah, but the same principlesapply.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Definitely, and it's more just the habit.
I think that's the thing likejujitsu in some ways and we've
discussed it before you can kindof get away with coming in,
like maybe you come in a bitlate, just do the first little.
Oh, I missed the warmup.
And so, even though we knowthat this can, over time, lead
to injury, it's not necessarilythe way straight up.
(02:56):
But if you're someone who'strying to get stronger, doing a
really good warmup, that ticksthese three boxes will set you
up for strength, strength,success, as opposed to just kind
of wandering in a bit of thisand then, yeah, I'll just pick
the bar up, you know.
So, first step, the thing thatwe've got to acknowledge is that
if you've just sat in the carfor half an hour, an hour,
(03:20):
you've driven to the gym,whatever you got stuck in
traffic, you're on the train,you've been sitting down all day
.
You've driven to the gym,whatever you got stuck in
traffic, you're on the train,you've been sitting down all day
.
We got to limber up, like wehave to remove the fucking
handbrakes, folks, becauseyou've been in these postures
and the positions.
That doesn't mean it'sconducive to lifting.
So the thing that I always tryto do for myself, and if I'm
(03:41):
working with anybody to helpthem, it's to remove these
things which may limit theirability to be strong.
So let me explain.
My example of this is if someoneis squatting or deadlifting and
they need strong hip extension,if they've been sitting down
all day, typically there'll bethis shortened position at the
(04:01):
hip, you know, and so spending abit of time doing some lunging
and doing some work which opensup through the front of the hip
and gets the glutes switched onactually serves like as a bit of
a correction for that.
And then after that they'relike oh, they stand a bit taller
, a bit straighter, and theirbody is primed to now do the
thing.
Have you got something that youlike to do with folks, joe?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head, Like
front of the hip, a little bitof like squatting, like just
getting into a squat, hangingout there a bit pushing the
knees out, opening up the hips,lengthening the spine and some
hanging, Hanging's great.
You know, I'm thinking of likethe three things that I will
kind of just habitually dousually while I'm thinking about
(04:43):
what I'm actually going to do.
Sure, I'll just start doingthat.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
My go-to for the upper body is a dislocate Like I
love a dislocate whether you'vegot a piece of timber like a
dowel or a band just because itdoes stretch the pecs.
It opens up the chest, but italso gets the upper back, rear
delts, rhomboids, it gets allthat fired, fired up and it also
gets you a bit straighter.
Yeah, gets the thoracic spineopened up and and it really
(05:09):
ticks a lot of boxes without alot of effort.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, I like that yeah, um, but absolutely like.
I think as you become more intune with what your body's
feeling, you do get a sense ofwhat you need that day.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
And you also start to anticipate what you're going to
be doing in the session, right,yeah, like say, if I'm, um, if
I'm going into the gym, I'vebeen working standards, the new
standards program lately, right.
And if I'm going in and I knowthat it's the upper body day, I
don't spend much time warm likeloosening up my lower body,
right right, I'm, I'm focused,I'm you know hanging.
I'm doing some tabletop press,some scat push-ups.
(05:44):
I'm doing some, you know, somecuban rotations, like it's all
shoulder and upper body, focused.
Likewise on the lower body day.
We're all about the legs, right?
So it's.
It's, I think, um for thegeneral person.
Keep it general.
But as your training starts tobranch off into areas of more
specificity, you can start totake your, your warmup towards
those directions too.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
For sure.
The next major checkbox youneed to look at is nervous
system activation.
It's getting your body awakeand ready for the task at hand.
So talk about optimum arousal.
I'm not talking about thebedroom, folks.
I'm talking about getting yourmuscles fired up, so that can
look like a variety of things,whether that be broad jumps,
(06:29):
hops, kind of bouncing, somedynamic work through the upper
body, whether that be like adynamic pushup or you're doing
some rotational work.
Explosive, like fast.
Stuff works really well forthis, doesn't it?
Yeah, it gets the nervoussystem going, because what this
actually does, is it Even justsquat jumps on the spot.
This demands more of yournervous system than just a
(06:51):
normal squat.
By pulling all these resourcesin and being like hey, body,
wake up, get these musclesworking, by switching on as many
muscle fibers as you can.
By doing this dynamic work, itis better prepared to take load.
Then you will be safer andbetter set up to produce force.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, I famously like when I learned this concept as
a young PT and I'm sure there'sa fancy name for it, but I was
like doing it on everyone.
And I remember I used to trainmy girlfriend.
At the time I trained her momand her little sister and they
trained with me for years.
They were great and the mom awonderful woman.
(07:33):
She started her trainingjourney with me in her late what
was she?
Early 50s I guess, and so itwas like she'd had three kids
and it wasn't?
we had to be respectful of a lot.
Anyway we used to train in thispark at surry hills and the.
What I had learned was you know,if you take a big, heavy
(07:53):
resistance band and you wrap itaround someone's waist, oh yeah,
and then you hold on to that,so you're kind of holding them
back and you get them to run ashard as they can, yes, and so I
was like, hey, I want you to runas hard as you can, for, like,
I want you to get from there tothere.
It's like 25 meters underresistance and I'm just going to
be like hanging back on you andmaking it hard.
And so, yeah, you know, she didit right, driving with the legs
(08:15):
, driving, driving, you know,got it.
And then I was like, great, nowwe take the band off.
And I was like, hey, reallycool thing, now what I want you
to do is just come back to thestart and I want you to sprint
it again, but I'm without theband, I just want you to feel
how much faster you are.
And she's like all right, andshe fucking took off so quick
that she lost.
She basically like she hit theground.
(08:35):
She hit the concrete.
Because she took off so fast,her balance was all fucked up,
couldn't control it, and she waslike, oh and like, hit the
concrete.
And I was like, oh God, likemiddle-aged woman hitting the
concrete in a PT session.
I'm like that's terrible.
And she was like, what'd youfucking do to me, you know?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
and I was like, see man, see how activated you are
powerful you're primed thatnervous system, perfect example
yeah no, the there there is aterm for this and, and you know,
some people might knowpotentiation post activate, post
activation, potentiation, right.
So typically you know, folksmight do like a heavy lift, like
three squats, and then do somesquat jumps, because your
nervous system is so G'd up andit's true Like if you impose a
(09:20):
dynamic demand, your body isthen prepared to do something
where your nervous system isrequired to do more.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
But my favorite way to go about that too is because
I want to shorten the warmup isand I know we'll talk about this
next but when I'm doing mywarmup sets of whatever exercise
in during those warmup sets, inthe rest periods, where I don't
actually need much rest causethey're warmup sets- yeah.
I'll do some of the some of thejumping work or whatever
Dynamic work, yeah, and I find Ijust kind of superset that for
(09:45):
maybe three rounds or so andthen I'm at my heavy shit.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
For sure, and this is the other thing too and you
know, John, I've talked aboutthis before we're doing
something dynamic like a hop ora jump, it actually requires
more of all the smaller fibersaround your knees and ankles,
which means, proprioceptively,you are actually better balanced
, You're more switched on.
So the thing that we startedincluding off the advice of
(10:12):
Joe's knee specialist is hopping, Just standing on the spot, or
some lateral hops before youstart doing jujitsu, just to get
everything switched on.
Because even though we don'tjump necessarily a lot in
jujitsu, or we don't think ofdoing that, even though we hop,
if we're defending a single legor anything like this, it's a
really good way to make sureeverything is prepared before
(10:34):
you load it up with a person oryou load it up with a heavy
weight.
And so this brings us to thethird point, which is the idea
of a ramp up.
Now, I actually learned thismany years ago from one of the
guys from Westside Barbell, andhe was so staunch I mean, most
(10:55):
guys from that gym are but hewas talking about how Louis
Simmons got them all to docertain strategic ramp up
weights before they hit theirmax working weight.
And I know a lot of people whojust don't do that.
They don't.
They might do one light set butthen just like, if they're
deadlifting a hundred kilos,they just jump to a hundred and
you're like what are you?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
what are you doing?
Folks are like no, I don't wantto use all my energy, I don't
want to waste energy.
Yeah, I'll save it for the, forthe working sets.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
But here's the thing you have to consider that the
ramp up is part of your warmupand you're also checking in with
your body because, my friends,I am here to save you time.
I do not want you to waste timedrinking Gatorade, powerade or
any other suboptimal electrolytedrink.
You know why?
It's just sugar.
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(11:43):
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(12:04):
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fools today.
Here's the thing Even thoughlast time 100 kilos was normal
or easy, today might bedifferent.
Today it might be easier or itmight be a lot harder for
various reasons.
So doing the ramp up is a wayto check in with yourself
(12:24):
Progressively.
Yeah, because if you, let's say, for you, you know your max
deadlift is a hundred kilos andyou do the bar and you know 40
kilos and 60, you're ramping up,you get to 18, you're like I'm
struggling, like I should beable to do this very easily five
times I can.
I can barely do it.
That's feedback.
But hey, maybe today is not theday that we do this, because
(12:48):
maybe you do need to back it off.
So I feel that like People arelike.
I don't want to know that.
I want to just I just want tolift it.
Yeah, I just want to bulge mydiscs.
Okay, Stop holding me back.
But no, the ramp up is and thisis the thing I learned from
people way smarter and waystronger than me that the ramp
up is an integral part of thewarmup.
The workout doesn't start untilyou're at your working weight,
(13:10):
so the ramp up is part of thewarmup, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
And you know, yeah, and that thing that some people
mention about, like I don't wantto use all my energy, that's
really silly, because youactually, if you do a good job
of ramping up appropriately, youwill be able to lift the most
yeah, better, whereas if youdon't, if you go in we've all
done this before where you'vekind of shortcutted the workout
(13:33):
for whatever reason you've gonestraight to some hard shit.
It's fucking way harder than itshould be.
You're like man, that that 120kilos today feels gross and
usually you go and do it againthe second time and it feels
totally different.
It's better because your bodyhas felt it and your body has,
yeah, right, like you said, it'slike that's pulled in the
resources to deal with the taskat hand.
(13:53):
Yeah, and this is we got tounderstand this about strength
training that we're doing ahyper specific movement with a
very specific loading.
Like your body, uh, it's veryisolated in terms of what it is
for your movement, and so themore you can be communicating to
your body hey, in a moment I'mgoing to ask you to do this, in
(14:15):
a moment I'm going to ask you todo this the better it's going
to work with you.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Whereas if you shock that thing it's going to hurt.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
You're going to pay a price for it, and here's just
an aside Like I'm pretty boring,pretty methodical in a lot of
ways, but it's Pavlovian right.
Like it's the idea that I'mgearing myself up
psychologically for the task athand.
So having my coffee at acertain time, having some dark
chocolate or having some almondsor something like it's, the
(14:43):
body is like oh shit, are wedoing that thing today, driving
in the car, listening to thecertain music?
It's like I'm a Barbie girl ina Barbie world and I'm just like
yeah fuck heavy deadlifts.
So then when I get to the gym,my body's like, oh, it's fucking
on, like we know.
Now.
This is what's happening, andthe gradual buildup is a
(15:05):
positive feedback loop because Iam setting my intention that,
all right, I'm picking this barup, and each time I'm noticing
how easy or hard is that?
Because it's positive.
If you go to pick up somethingwhich is 80% of your estimated
weight and it feels like nothing, you're like, oh, I'm on today,
this is good, I'm ready, and sothat has a very positive
(15:27):
influence on you being readyphysically and mentally to do
the damn thing.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Yeah, and I guess, just to sort of make that clear,
like, let's take the standardsworkout, the current one I'm
working through as an exampleYou've got you go and you do
your warmup right, where we takecare of a lot of this in the
warmup, and then you've got yourlike primary to upper body
strength exercises right.
You got a pull of some kind anda press of some kind and these
(15:54):
are going to be like these areyour primary exercises.
This is the heavy shit.
So you will do the ramp upright.
If it's a weight like, if it'sa press, you know, if it's a
kettlebell press or bottoms uppress, something like that, you
can just choose the lighterkettlebell, do it that way.
But if it's a pull-up orsomething, you might do some
bent-over rows or some ring rowsor some scap pulls as a way to
get primed for that.
(16:14):
Once you get those exercisesout of the way, you then go to
another set of pressing andpulling exercises.
Your body's already at peakactivation.
You don't need to then doramp-ups for that, no Right, and
it's the same as if it's yoursecond hinge exercise and second
squat.
You did it all in the warmup.
Your body's going really well.
(16:35):
You can pretty much jumpstraight into the heavy shit now
.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Yeah, yeah, and it really, when you're looking at
accessory work, like once you'vedone your primaries, obviously
you want to get the most out ofthem.
But if you've kind of givenyour all to the primary lifts,
accessories you just you're kindof doing what you can and it
doesn't mean you don't You'renot trying to change the world.
No, it doesn't mean you don'trespect them and give them the
(17:00):
best you've got.
But you also appreciate thatlike, okay, I'm now not
operating at full tank, I amwarm and yeah, I can do what I
can, but it really depends onthe day, you know, and how tough
that those primary exerciseswere.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, it's a great way to put it.
Like the majority of yourbandwidth goes to the primary
exercises.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Yes, yeah and look, there's a lot to be gained in
the accessory work.
But when we're talking aboutthese warmups, like when we're
talking about getting yourselfready, that does set you up for
the rest of the workout.
And you know, if you've liftedwell with your kind of first two
lifts and you're feeling good,that sets the tone.
There's nothing worse than youshow up to the gym and you're
(17:41):
like you're trying to get intoit and then you're like you're
having a bit of a shit one andthen you're like, oh, I suck
today, like you can get into abit of a negative spiral, you
know.
And then this can, this cankind of, I guess, lower the tone
and the quality for the wholesession.
So by setting the tone well andwarming up correctly, this can
mean overall it's a bettersession.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
So, um, you know, if we're talking like we've got
three things there, right, liketake the handbrakes off, brakes
off, um, get your nervous systemfired up and then get your ramp
upsets in.
So the ramp upsets, you'redoing your primary exercise
there, so that's the sameexercise.
So you know, in terms of like,how many exercises you'd be
putting into a warm-up.
(18:23):
You know, if we're talkingabout the first two steps there,
what's, what's that look likefor you?
Speaker 1 (18:28):
for me it's generally usually three-ish exercises, so
I will usually do something formy upper body, specific to what
I'm doing, something for myhips, my core and something for
my knees and ankles.
That's usually also just seeing, like, oh, how tired am I today
, some days better than others.
Then I might do one, one, maybetwo, depending on time, of like
(18:54):
a plyometric or a dynamicexercise.
So it probably shakes down tothree to five, but it only takes
, honestly, 10, 15 minutes.
And I think a lot of peoplelike, oh, it seems like so much,
but you're trying to keep itmoving because you are trying to
elevate your body temperatureand you're trying to get to the
thing.
So I think that's the thingthat we talk ourselves out of it
(19:16):
, like, oh, I don't have time,but actually by missing it, then
you kind of you lose theopportunity to be stronger,
potentially.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
But yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, look, I'm about the same and and you know
you're resting during your like.
When you get to the heavy stuffyou're taking big rest periods
generally, so like you have thattime there.
If you've got 10 minutes to doa warmup, do the warmup Like
just fucking bang it out.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Three exercises for it, Like pick a few things that
work well for you, whetherswitching on to okay, we're
going to go do some training now.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yeah, for sure, and, look, it is the smallest
investment you can make to getbig returns from your workout.
So we do all this other stuffright To try and get stronger
and feel better, and I thinkthat this approach is applicable
to jujitsu as well.
Yeah, and we do tend to missout on it, but by taking that
(20:15):
extra 10 minutes before classand limbering up and and geeing
up the nervous system and allthese things, the ramp up is
kind of built into the class.
So, yeah, you, you know, evenif your class does a specific
warmup or games or whatever theydo at your academy, taking a
little bit of time to prep thebody, it goes a long way for you
(20:36):
to be better prepared forjiu-jitsu as well as the gym.
There it is folks, buss, buss,be prepared, gestrown.
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