5 Warm Ups to Level Up Your Workouts and Prevent Injury

Fitness warmups can be a neglected part of exercise, often viewed as the chore to get through before your pilates, strength training or cardio. We understand that you might be eager to launch straight into your workout, but incorporating a few minutes of dynamic warmup stretches has many benefits on the body, particularly when it comes to boosting mobility and preventing injury. In the below guide, we’re here to emphasise why it is important to warm up before your FS8 workouts and 5 exercises you can perform to prep your full body. 

Why are warmup exercises important? 

Performing warmups for workouts offers some serious full-body benefits that help alleviate muscle soreness after gym and home workouts. Like the name implies, a warmup increases your core body temperature, muscle temperature and blood flow. Not only does this curb muscle stiffness, but it also improves the range of motion in your joints; this enhances flexibility and performance while safeguarding your body against injury.¹

A good fitness warmup should target the full body and major muscle groups, getting you primed for your workout. This includes a combination of light cardio, dynamic stretches and range of motion exercises. It’s also important to think about the type of exercise you’re about to engage in, since you can let this guide your choice of warmup stretches. For example, pilates warmup exercises can focus on flexibility, mobility and activating your core muscles. 

5 warmups for workouts to prevent injury 

A five-minute warm up should be sufficient to stimulate your muscles before a workout. We also suggest focusing on dynamic stretching over static stretching, since static stretching alone can sometimes “inhibit” muscle activity. Before engaging in your warmup stretches and exercises, consider your own abilities and range of motion. The idea is to prepare the body for a workout, rather than overextending yourself before starting. Let’s dive into some of FS8’s favourite warmup exercises so you can make the most of your workout and experience the full scope of mat and reformer pilates benefits. 

Star jumps or skipping 

A sure-fire way to get your heart pumping before a workout class is to incorporate a few minutes of jump rope or star jumps. You can treat this as the cardio portion of your fitness warmup, which is going to increase your body’s core temperature, helping to prep your muscles and joints for your workout and prevent muscle tearing. 

1. If skipping, ensure your jump rope is the appropriate length for your height. 

2. Skip continuously for several minutes without stopping – gradually increasing as your cardio fitness improves. 

Hip rotations 

Hip rotations or ‘circles’ stimulate blood flow to the hip and loosen up your lower body joints, making it an important reformer pilates warmup. 

1. Stand with your feet at hip-width apart. 

2. Place your arms either on your hips or with your arms bent behind your head. 

3. Raise one knee 90 degrees, then rotate outwards, opening as wide as you can before bringing your knee back in. 

4. Mirror this movement with your opposite leg, matching the number of reps. 

Pelvic thrust 

If you’re looking for advice on how to warm up before exercise with some lower-impact movements, we recommend the pelvic thrust. This fitness warmup is a great yoga pose for back pain and stiffness since it strengthens your glutes and hamstrings while stabilising your lower back.  

1.Start with your back on your mat, knees bent at a 90-degree angle and feet planted hip-width apart. 

2. Inhale and lift your tailbone upward, keeping your feet pressed into the floor. Your body should form a straight line from your hips to shoulders. 

3. Lower your pelvis back to your mat, exhaling as you return your pelvis to the floor. 

Plank walkout 

This is a great dynamic warmup that engages your upper body muscles, core, hamstrings and glutes, while also targeting balance and posture. As a result, this is a perfect warmup stretch before our FS8 Blast workouts, which combines strength training with reformer pilates. 

1. Begin in plank position, ensuring your shoulders are above your wrists and your spine is in a neutral position. 

2. With your feet planted, step your hands back until you are upright in the squat position. 

3. Rise to a full standing position. 

4. Reverse the motion, ‘walking’ out into the plank position and back again. 

Squats 

There are a few squat options you can perform to warm up before exercise. Squats are a great way to stimulate your glutes, quads and hamstrings, and they are quick to increase your body and muscle temperature.   

1.For a standard squat, start with your feet hip-width apartment, with your toes facing forward. 

2. For a more dynamic movement, opt for a pile squat with a heel raise to really engage your quads.  

3. If you want to work on range of motion, try doing squats with reach. This is like a traditional squat, except you plunge lower, fingertips touching the ground, then stretching above your head as you rise. 

Now that you have a handle on warmup stretches and movements, discover 9 cool down exercises to try after your workout.