Full Body Warm Up Routine (10 Minutes)

About this plan

Three ten-minute warm-ups, each working from a different starting point, so the one you use can match the session ahead.

Version one goes joint by joint — ankle circles, wrist circles, hip circles, cat stretch, the world's greatest stretch and bird dogs. Version two is lower body led: knee-to-chest, quadriceps stretch, hamstring stretch, leg-up hamstring and a seated groin stretch. Version three is upper body: chest and shoulder stretch, shoulder stretch behind the back, isometric chest squeezes and an upper back stretch.

A warm-up has three jobs and they are worth separating. Raise tissue temperature, take joints through the range the session will demand, and wake up the muscles that are about to work. Twenty seconds of movement per position does the first two; the isometric squeezes and bird dogs do the third.

Wrist circles in version one are there because they are almost always skipped and because push-ups, planks and front squats all load the wrist in extension. Twenty seconds costs nothing.

What none of these versions include is a long static hold. Holding a stretch for a minute before training reduces power output for a while afterwards and does not lower injury risk — the useful long holds belong after the session, not before it.

Pick the version that matches the day: lower body before squats, upper before pressing, the joint-by-joint one when you have been sitting all day or are not sure.

Ten minutes feels like a lot until you notice how much better the first working set moves. If you are short of time, cut it to five rather than skipping it — the first two positions in each version are the ones doing the most.