A thorough warm-up is essential for both effective strength-training and effecient intraday recovery...
Light exercise is the best tool for improved recovery in-between hard workouts. Some light jogging, hiking, swimming or easy Parkour followed by a thorough stretching session is perfect. Along those lines, I have decided to put together the most useful and broad-spectrum exercises into a standardized warm-up for our WOD, and this by itself will be an excellent rest-day activity. General calisthenics performed until you raise your core temperature over a wide-range of movement options are an excellent way to flush your body of accumulated toxins. Each exercise should be performed in a rep-range that allows for a raise in body-temperature, heart rate and range-of-motion, without accumulating undue fatigue. Substitutions for each exercise are fine, as everybody has a different level of fitness, so if Dips are too hard, then perhaps try push-ups, or knee push-ups. If 10 is too many, than perform as many as possible within the range of an effective warm-up is concerned. As you fitness improves, your warm-up will mirror this improvement. The standardized warmup will be as follows:
3 Rounds:
Run 2-400m
10-15 Squats
10-15 Pull-Ups
10-15 Pushups
2 x :30 Samson Stretch Each Side
Agility Work- Mark a 10-rung ladder on the floor, each rung 12-18 inches apart. Perform the following agility drills as a circuit, repeat 2-3 times:
High Knees, one step per-block
High Knees, two steps per-block
Side-step, two steps per-block
High Knees, backwards, one step per-block
Butt-kicks, one step per-block
Rest as needed between each exercise, keeping in mind that the goal isn't to kill yourself, but rather to facilitate a raise in core-temperature and improve the pliability of your muscles and connective tissues. If you do this on a rest day, it can be followed by a good session of stretching (issue 3 of the Performance Menu, with an excellent feature on flexibility). If it is before the workout, leave the stretching for the very end of the entire workout session.
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