Team Warm Up-Lower Body 1 of 2: Band Routine

By now, it has been firmly implanted in to many coaches minds that preparation or warm up for weight training is very important. By participating in sports in just the last 10 years, I can personally remember the concept of a warm up transitioning from "take a lap and stretch on your own" to "after foam rolling and corrective stretching were are going into activation and mobility drill."

With all the great research and recent developments that can help athletes correct movement patterns, activate muscles, enhance stability, regain mobility, improve tissue quality...wow, what a list! And you have to put a team of 80 guys through this in less then an hour?...what...15 min?!?!

This is where systems come into play. A system based off primary areas of need in your particular sport. With a system athletes can memorize. Once this occurs so does efficiency. We utilize 4 routines which we can cover all those things listed above in a continuous and sometimes simultaneously which allows us to accomplish more with the time given.

Band Routine-Lower body 1 of 2
Foam Roll-As I have mentioned in previous post, our team takes personal accountability to show up 5-10 min before the scheduled time to foam roll in order for us to get right into our corrective work.
Stretch- Kneeling Lunge, 3-D External Rotators
Hurdle Mobility Lateral- "Fish Hook", R/L, Over/Under all paired with a dynamic stretch.
Mini Bandx5 each
Straight Leg Lateral Walk
Straight Leg Forward
Monster Walk F/B
External rotations (band on knees)
Wide March/Tight March (around foot)

From here we proceed into Med Ball routine and movement drills. This entire routine including med ball and movement drills take 15 minutes. The first day did take a little longer but once it is learned it becomes very efficient. The key to making this work is keeping the pace up. Guys are always building up a great sweat and getting a lot done in the process. Besides the pace of the warm up, I really like the fact that it addresses a wide array of needs important to football players with extra emphasis placed on hip mobility.

Hope this can give some aid to those trying to find ways to quickly and efficiently move athletes through an effective warm up. Be sure to stop by again when I will post the 2nd Lower Body routine: The stick warm up.