A warm‑up should do one simple thing: help your body feel ready to move. Research consistently shows that warming up before high‑intensity exercise can lower injury risk and improve performance, but not all warm‑up methods are equally useful. Before diving into what an effective warm-up looks like, it’s important to understand what occurs in your body when you warm up and how it primes you for activity.
Mechanisms of warm-ups
One of the main reasons to include a warmup prior to high intensity exercise is to increase body temperature. Increases in body temperature are theorised to affect muscle tissue, metabolism and the nervous system. Based on contemporary evidence, the proposed mechanisms and benefits of increasing body temperature include; improving energy turnover in muscle tissue and increasing muscle glycogen availability and rate of force development.
Relating to the nervous system, an effective warm up increases post-activation potentiation. In essence, this means that your nervous system can recruit more muscle fibres, improving force production and quicker muscle activation.
Psychologically, an effective warmup allows you to narrow your attention to the task at hand and improves mental readiness and self-confidence. In turn, mentally preparing yourself for exercise can boost your performance through greater self-efficacy and reduced hesitation, potentially decreasing your injury risk.
Now that we’ve described the mechanisms of a warmup, lets dive into how to conduct a simple yet effective warm up relative to your circumstances.
Stretching isn’t the star of the show
Static and dynamic stretching don’t meaningfully improve performance or prevent injuries for most athletes. Stretching can still be helpful for sports that require extreme ranges of motion — like gymnastics or dance — but for most people, it’s optional rather than essential.
Movement is what matters
The most effective warm‑ups raise your heart rate, increase muscle temperature, and prepare your nervous system for action. This doesn’t need to be complicated. Start with light aerobic activity, then move into drills that mimic the movements of your sport.
Rehearse the activity
The best warm‑up for any exercise is simply doing that exercise at a lower intensity. Examples:
Runners: easy jog → strides → faster efforts
Lifters: lighter sets → gradual load increases
Field athletes: light skills → movement drills → short accelerations
This approach prepares your body for the exact demands ahead.
Keep it short and purposeful
A good warm‑up usually takes 10–15 minutes. It should feel progressive, comfortable, and confidence‑building, not exhausting. The goal is readiness, not fatigue.
If you are still feeling stuck on how to conduct an effective warm-up. Our team of experts can assist in developing a personalised program relative to your sporting demands and circumstances to ensure your risk of injury is reduced and you feel confident prior to completing any exercise. Please give us a call on 9431 5955 if you’d like to book in with an OHL Physiotherapist to aid in the development of an individualised warm up or alternatively you can book via the Client Portal on our website.
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