Fit Villains: Selfish, Shameless, Sassy, Fitness.

Wicked Warm Up! Moonhowlers

Conventional warm ups are sometimes boring for me. I prefer using more of my body from the get go. I use a variety of moves to get my body prepped for movement, and they change from workout to workout.

Misconception: any old warmup will do.

While the purpose of a warm up is to… well… WARM YOU UP, it also preps your muscles for harder work. One of the best ways to warm up is to pump blood into the muscle groups you’re working that DAY. So if you’re planning on working your chest, do a small set of pushups in your warm up. Your legs? Add squats and lunges. Your back? Add a few supermans.

The goal isn’t to exhaust your body, but rather to work it just enough to get some blood flowing: bodyweight or light weights onlt. I alternate between cardio and total body moves that work my body and stretch me out at the same time (dynamic stretching). Training this way is a performance booster as well. You’ll notice more reps and higher energy when you start your actual workout.

I call these ‘moonhowlers’. It’s a variation of a walkout/inchworm. I use them to warm up for interval training and/or cardio.

A. Start standing tall, then bend at the hips to bring your hands to the ground (slight bend in the knee).

B. Keeping your abs tight, walk your hands out to plank position. Butt down!

C. Drop down into a tricep pushup (elbows close to the body), and press up into upward facing dog (similar to chatarunga).

D. Reverse the motion, walking the hands back and finishing with a bodyweight deadlift (legs slightly bent, use your hips to lift you up and keep your back flat).

Try 5- 10 of these in your warm up to hit your whole body! Works your arms, back, core, booty and gives you a nice stretch all at the same time!