Warm-ups are essential before every workout. Whether you're a professional athlete or a novice in the fitness world, preparing your body for exercise includes warming up all your muscles.
A shoulder warm-up is extremely important for athletes who perform repeated throwing motions, such as baseball or football players, or athletes that compete in field events like shot put or javelin throwing, but they can also be useful for anyone that is looking to increase shoulder strength.
Throwing mobility bands are a great tool for helping athletes warm-up their shoulders by providing light resistance to a variety of exercises intended to warm-up the muscles of the shoulder and core. Throwing a small set of bands in your athletic bag is easy, and a great way to help you avoid strain and injury while training.
A great warm-up can't be overlooked. The amount of stress that repeated throwing motions put on your shoulder greatly increases the risk of injury or muscle damage. Those injuries can easily be avoided by preparing your muscles for training or a match with an exercise for shoulder mobility.
Why warm-up before exercising?
There are many reasons to perform warm-up exercises before a workout. As the term warm-up suggests, performing a warm-up before strenuous exercise increases the temperature of your body, including your muscles. A warmer body means a better release of oxygen in your bloodstream to those working muscles, which can increase endurance. Hemoglobin's bond with oxygen is weaker in warmer temperatures, which allows more availability of that oxygen to the muscles that need it during strenuous activity.
Warming-up helps dilate blood vessels which will allow more blood flow to your muscles. This also aids in the delivery of oxygen to muscles and joints that need to work at peak efficiency and extend to their full potential.
Muscles that are properly warmed-up perform better. They contract more forcefully and recover more quickly, giving you your best performance at the gym or on the field. A proper warm-up can also reduce the chances of overstretching which can cause injury.
Warming-up can also help you avoid overheating. This sounds counter-intuitive, but getting the warm blood circulating through your body turns on your heat regulation system. Your body will begin the cooling process (i.e. sweating) before you begin a more demanding activity.
What are good warm-ups before working out?
Full body warm-ups
Full body warm-ups can be easy cardio repetitions like jumping rope, jogging in place, or a few minutes on a stationary bike or trampoline. These movements will get your core temperature and heart rate up. Then you can begin to focus on the particular muscle sets you'll be working during your current session.
Targeted warm-ups
Follow up the full-body segment with a warm-up specifically targeted to the areas you'll be focusing on during your workout or sporting activity.
A shoulder warm-up is especially important for throwing athletes or anyone that is looking to work out their shoulder muscles. Injury can happen if shoulder and core muscles are not properly warmed up before performing strenuous exercises.
Whether you are using a CrossFit shoulder workout or training on your own a resistance band warm-up can help reach every part of the shoulder, ensuring a good shoulder warm-up before performing your exercises for shoulder mobility and strength.
3 Keys to a proper throwing warm-up:
1. Start slow
A proper warm-up takes time and should progressively work you through more complex and broader movements. Don't rush the movements just to “get them done.” A warm-up can be the most important part of your workout routine.
While doing each warm-up exercise, take your time, use controlled movements, and keep your body and core in good, strong stances without extreme flexion, extension, or external or internal rotation.
2. Work on a variety of movements
Work on a variety of movements in different planes to warm up different muscles and avoid injuries. Employing resistance or mobility bands can help you ensure you've warmed your shoulders up in all directions.
3. Don’t overdo it
While a full warm-up could take up to 30 minutes, consider the amount of time you have for your entire workout, and adjust accordingly. Targeted shoulder warm-ups can be done in as little as 10 minutes, but be sure you're working every muscle equally. Keep in mind the goal of the warm-up — to prepare you for things to come!
Exercises to warm-up shoulders
These shoulder warm-up exercises will get your muscles moving in a wide range of motions and angles. Workout warmups are only beneficial if you are performing them correctly so be sure to pay close attention to your form.
In these exercises, you will see that the trainer is using resistance bands, there are many other great warmup exercises to use before a workout, but in our opinion, a resistance band shoulder mobility warm-up is both the most beneficial and safest way to know that you are really priming up those muscles to do some hard work.
1. Forearm Extension
2. Side torso extension
While performing the side torso extension, he’s working his core muscles, especially his obliques, and holding the stretch where he feels a slight stretch without pain or overextension.
3.Superfly and Reverse Superfly
To target the rear delts, or the back of his shoulder, he performs a reverse fly, while using a regular fly to hit the front of the shoulders and his pectoral muscles. Here he keeps his forearms parallel to the ground for proper form.
4. External and Internal Shoulder Rotation
Two of the most important movements for anyone training for throwing mobility are internal and external shoulder rotation. You can see how the trainer performs small controlled movements during these two types of warm-up exercises.
5. Elevated Internal Shoulder Rotation
6. Reverse and Forward Throwing Motion
The reverse throwing exercise targets his shoulder and core in a more complete movement, just as the forward throwing exercise does. Both of these warm-up movements mimic the actual action he’ll end up doing during his game.
You’ll notice that trainer keeps his shoulder in a locked position throughout these movements to prevent any injury from the additional forward or backward movement of the ball in the socket of his shoulder. He hits all the important muscles through this warm-up and he'll be able to perform at his best because of it.
How to warm-up shoulders: takeaway
While every workout requires a warm-up, doing a targeted shoulder warm-up is essential for athletes who need extra strength in their shoulders.
Adding the resistance of a mobility band can help focus your efforts on every individual muscle in the shoulder area.
A proper will warm-up allow your muscles to function better during your workout or match. Blood flow is improved to the area, muscle temperature increases, and the risk of injury is lessened when you take the time to fully prepare with a warm-up.
Always remember to properly warm-up before each and every training session. Working through a variety of movements during each warm-up ensures that you can perform at your best!
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