The Work Capacity Warm Up

The simplest way to go about increasing work capacity, in my opinion, is through the use of properly structured WARM UPS. While warm ups are typically though of as boring, they are not only very necessary for preventing injuries and optimizing your training session for that day, they can also be used to over time crank up your work capacity and general level of fitness.

There are a bunch of ways to warm up, from dynamic flexability movements to different activation exercises to bar complexes to movement drills - its all good and is dependent on the type of session you're about to do. For my own strength and conditioning sessions, and those of my clients, I love mixing calisthenics with various band movements for the upperback and posterior chain. With maybe 4 or 5 movements hitting every major movement plane, i'm trying to get the biggest bang for my buck.

a typical warm up for me might look like this
1. Push Ups 2x15
2. Band Face Pulls 2x15
3. BW Squats 2x20
4. Reverse Lunges 2x10 ea
5. Band Goodmornings 2x20

or lately its been this, where I just go through the circuit once
1. Push Ups x 50
2. Band Face Pulls x 50
3. Squats x 50
4. Band Goodmornings or Reverse Lunges x 50


Sometimes I might hit up a slightly different push up variation, or maybe do band pull aparts instead of facepulls, or bodyweight glute ham raises instead of band goodmornings. It doens't matter - the main point is that i'm generally getting in 150-200 total reps of work BEFORE I even do my main training session. Volume and the benefits for my work capacity aside, by drilling perfect push up form, perfect squat form, etc - my warm ups have helped as a prehabilitative measure as well.

So start re-thinking your warm ups and watch those nagging injuries go away and your work capacity go through the roof!