WAC Magazine

APRIL | 2014

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Be smart, warm up Every great workout needs a good beginning T hink about the first thing you do when you walk onto the exercise floor. Do you head straight for the weights or the treadmill? Or do you do a quick torso rotation and quad stretch to warm up? Often, proper warm-up exercises are overlooked. If you were to ask a random person at the gym whether or not they see the value of a warm-up, they would most likely say yes. Yet many people skip this important step. Why is that? One reason is that many of us don't know what types of exercises to incorporate into an effective warm-up routine. Using the acronym R.A.M.P. can help. R.A.M.P. stands for range of motion, activation, and movement preparation. These three concepts loosen overactive muscles, strengthen underactive muscles, allow your body temperature to increase, expand joint range of motion, and improve movement quality. The R.A.M.P. method of warming up improves range of motion by utilizing massage, foam rolling, and objects such as tennis balls. Because our bodies develop adhesions—think of these as internal scar tissue— between muscles and fascia that decrease our flexibility and affect our ability to move, it's critical to warm up before exercise. By using a foam roller, for example, you can break down adhesions and increase mobility. Essentially, the more scar tissue you have the tighter your body will feel. The next part of R.A.M.P. is activation. This means it's time to wake up your muscles. Activation movements are dynamic by nature and target major muscle groups, such as the glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps and abdomen. The final component of R.A.M.P. is movement preparation. This may include a series of body-weight patterns, ladder drills, jumping, throwing, hopping, crawling, or jump training. The goal is to get moving. A good exercise is the power skip. This isn't the same type of skipping you did as a kid. Instead, you'll make huge arm motions throughout the skip and get as high off the floor as you can. Warming up will improve your workouts and make them more effective and less injury-prone. Next time you arrive at the gym, take 10–15 minutes to go through a few simple exercises. Your body will thank you. Mary Little is a WAC Personal Trainer. Reach her at mlittle@wac.net or 206.622.7900, ext. 3700. RANGE OF MOTION ACTIVATION M P Getting Fit By Mary Little, WAC Personal Trainer GET STARTED R.A.M.P up with these body-weight exercises. POWER SKIP 1. Give yourself plenty of space and begin skipping, bringing one arm and the opposite leg forward. 2. Drive arm and opposite leg up toward the ceiling as high as possible. 3. Complete 20 skips. Repeat twice. LADDER DRILL 1. Place web ladder on flat ground. 2. Stand to the side of first square with both feet outside ladder and next to each other. Move feet forward into first square one at a time. Then move feet backward and out one at a time. Repeat for one minute moving laterally along the ladder. The foot pattern is: in, in, out, out. MOVEMENT PREPARATION 22 | Washington Athletic Club Magazine | APRIL 2014 A N N A D E L A P A Z

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