If you want your athletes to be able to perform at a high level in their sport, a proper warm-up is crucial. Not only is it our goal to get our athletes ready to compete and perform to their full potential, our role as coaches is first and foremost to prevent injuries. There is nothing more critical in reducing the incidence of injury than putting our athletes through a well-structured warm-up program. Running fast and performing explosive movements are extremely complicated activities from a neuromuscular standpoint. Preparing the body to be ready for these activities is critical. So, what does a properly designed warm-up program mean? An ideal warm-up program has to be efficient. We can’t waste time here. It can’t be too short and it can’t be too long. It can’t have too many exercises or too few. It can’t always be the exact same exercises because the athletes will get bored. There needs to be progressions to them if they are too easy. If you train one athlete vs. a group of athletes, what you can do in your warm-up is completely different. If you are outside warming-up on a track vs. warming up inside in a limited area/space – your exercise selection is going to be much different. Choosing the correct warm-up exercises is important. You need to have many in your ‘toolbox’ and pull the right ones out when called for or when trying to get a particular result. And this is why we created the Complete Warm-Up program…to cover what you need to know to get your athletes ready to dominate in a workout or competition.