Exercises to Do Before Strength Training

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

A sedentary lifestyle causes muscle amnesia, which impairs your athletic performance. Activating exercises will correct muscle imbalances and force the desired muscles to work, which will increase the effectiveness of training and reduce the risk of injury.

Why do you need activating exercises

Activation exercises are preparatory movements that should definitely be included in your warm-up, especially if you have a sedentary job. These exercises help you become aware of which muscles are working during each movement and warm up your body well for the main part of your workout.

Improving the connection between body and mind

In strength training, muscle control is essential. As you perform the exercise, you must feel which muscles are tense in all its phases, otherwise you will never be able to improve your technique.

Using small muscles instead of large muscles that are supposed to work during strength exercises increases the risk of injury and greatly reduces your performance. Activating exercises teach you to focus on the sensations of your body and use the exact muscles that need to be working.

Warming up and activating the right muscles

Even if you concentrate on your muscles, it is not a fact that you will be able to immediately feel them.

If you sit for most of the day, you may experience muscle amnesia - a condition in which you cannot feel certain muscles tense, even if you pay attention to it. Therefore, the second task of activating exercises is to help your muscles "wake up" so that you can use their full potential during strength training.

How to do activating exercises

We will show you three sets of activating exercises. Choose the one that suits your goals and do it after your regular warm-up.

A set of exercises for those who sit at the computer a lot

With constant work at the computer, you maintain an unnatural position for a long time, which forms an imbalance in the muscles. The hip flexors and abs become stiff and tight, the quads and back muscles weak and stretched. The neck, shoulders and wrists are overly tense, and the buttocks lose their tone.

To address imbalances and engage weak muscles, do this set of five activating exercises.

1. Warm up the wrists with an elastic band

If you type or drive all day, your hands are often squeezed, which overexerts the flexor muscles, and exercising with a horizontal bar, bar, or dumbbells only aggravates the problem.

This can result in pain and discomfort during push-ups or hand-walking. To avoid discomfort, work on activating the extensor muscles. To do this, you will need a hand expander or just a hair tie.

Exercise technique

Connect your fingers. Place the elastic around your fingertips from the outside. Overcoming resistance, try to spread your fingers as wide as possible. Do 20 reps for each arm.

2. Exercise "Camel"

This exercise helps to stretch the tight muscles of the abdomen, hips, shoulders and chest and activate the glutes.

Exercise technique

Sit on the floor with your legs bent under you. If you have a good stretch, press the back of your feet against the floor, if not, touch the floor with the balls of your feet. Lower your shoulders, place your hands on your heels. Bring your pelvis forward and upward, arching. Tighten your buttocks, open your chest as much as possible, lower your shoulders. The head and neck are pulled back. Do the exercise 10 times or hold the pose for 20 seconds.

3. Stretching against the wall

This exercise activates the lower trapezius muscle and the rhomboid muscles.

Exercise technique

Stand with your back to the wall at a distance of half a step, bend your elbows and pull them back so that they touch the wall. Lower your shoulders and keep your neck in a neutral position. Strive with your chest up, and pull your shoulder blades and pull down.

The closer you are to the wall, the easier it is to complete the exercise. You should feel tension between your shoulder blades. If your neck stiffens instead, move closer to the wall.

4. Chest bridge

This exercise helps open the chest and hips, which are pinched while constantly sitting at the table or in the car, as well as activate the buttocks.

Exercise technique

Get on all fours. Hands are under the shoulders, knees under the hips, feet are on the pads. Lift your knees off the floor, and distribute your body weight between your hands and the balls of your feet.

Lift your left arm and right leg off the floor, while rotating your torso to the left so that your left shoulder faces the ceiling. Place your right foot on the floor shoulder-width apart from your left, tighten your buttocks, both hips facing the ceiling. The shoulders are perpendicular to the floor, the chest is open as much as possible, the gaze is directed to the floor.

Return to the starting position on all fours and do it the other way. Do it five times in each direction.

5. Glute bridge

This exercise helps to activate the gluteus muscles and stretch the stiff hips.

Exercise technique

Lie on your back, bend your knees and place your feet on the floor. Lift your pelvis as high as possible, straining your buttocks. Lower yourself to the starting position. Repeat the exercise 20 times or hold the position for 30 seconds.

To avoid bridging your lower back or hamstrings, keep your glutes tight at all times.

A set of exercises to activate the muscles of the back

This set is worth doing if your workout includes pull-ups, bent-over dumbbell and barbell rows, crossover row and crossover rows, and other back exercises.

1. Raising and lowering the arms with the reduction of the shoulder blades

This exercise will help activate the muscles in your back and improve the flattening of your shoulder blades.

Exercise technique

Stand up straight with a mini band around your arms, or hold a towel wider than shoulder level. Raise your arms up, lower your shoulders, tighten your abs to remove the arch in the lower back. Try to spread your arms, overcoming the resistance of the expander or tearing the towel.

Without relaxing the tension, lower your arms to chest level, bring your shoulder blades together, and point your chest up. Hold your hands in front of your chest for a few seconds and then lift them up again. Repeat the exercise 10 times.

2. Plank with the convergence of the shoulder blades

This exercise helps to activate your back muscles.

Exercise technique

Stand in a plank with your hands under your shoulders, legs together, and your body in a straight line. Bring the shoulder blades together. Don't bend your elbows or move your hips. Hold for a few seconds, then relax and repeat. Complete 10 Shoulder Information.

During this exercise, only the shoulder blades move. If you cannot bring them together without bending your elbows or moving your hips, start with a light version of the exercise on all fours, with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your pelvis.

3. Activation of the back muscles in the hang

This exercise represents the initial phase of the pull-up. It allows you to activate strong back muscles and establish the correct movement pattern to help you correct your pull-up technique.

Exercise technique

Grasp the horizontal bar with a straight grip. You can hang completely or leave your feet on the floor. Lift your chest up, lower your shoulders, bring your shoulder blades together, feel how your back muscles tighten. Lower to the starting position and repeat. Do the exercise 10 times.

4. Hoop pull-ups with feet on the floor

This exercise will help activate your back muscles and teach you how to move properly while maintaining tension in your core muscles.

Exercise technique

Grasp the rings or loops, hang on outstretched arms, and straighten your legs. Lower your shoulders and bring your shoulder blades together. Feeling the tension in your back muscles, pull yourself up to the rings. Drop back down and repeat nine more times. Tighten your abs and glutes to keep your body in a straight line.

This exercise can be made more difficult by placing your feet on a pedestal. The closer your body is to a horizontal position, the harder it is to pull up.

Don't chase complexity, your goal is to get a feel for your back muscles.

A set of exercises to activate the buttocks

Do this set if your workout includes any kind of deadlift, squat, lunging, jumping, and stepping on a hill.

1. Circle on all fours

This exercise activates the gluteus maximus, medius, and minor, stretches and opens the hips, and engages the core muscles.

Exercise technique

Get on all fours, hands under your shoulders, knees under your hips. Lift your leg up, straining your buttocks, linger in this position for two seconds. Try to lift your leg precisely at the expense of the gluteal muscles, without straining the hamstrings.

Move your leg to the side so that your thigh is to the side and parallel to the floor. Hold this position for two seconds. Bring your knee to the elbow from the outside and keep it suspended by contracting your abs. Stay in this position for two seconds. Move your leg back and lift it again by tightening the buttocks. Repeat the circle again. Perform five circles on each leg.

2. Bridge "Frog"

Unlike the gluteal bridge, this exercise cannot be performed using the hamstrings or lower back muscles, so it works well for those who cannot feel the gluteal muscles in any way.

Exercise technique

Lie on the floor on your back, bring your feet together on the floor and let your knees open freely. Bend your elbows and lift your forearms so that they are perpendicular to the floor. Leaning on folded feet, lift your pelvis off the floor and lift it as high as possible. Hold this position for two seconds, then lower yourself and repeat four more times.

3. Side bar on the knees

This exercise works well for activating the gluteus medius muscles, as well as the core muscles, which provide hip stability during strength exercises.

Exercise technique

Lie on your side, resting on your forearm, bend your legs at the knees, place your other hand on your belt. Point the pelvis up, lift the lower thigh off the floor, and lift the upper thigh as high as possible, keeping the knee bent. At the top, touch the floor only with your knee, foot and forearm. Hold this position for two seconds and lower yourself back down.

Repeat the exercise five times, then work on the other side.

For the exercises to have an effect, do them slowly and deliberately and try to feel the desired muscles.

If you don't have enough time for the whole set, choose one exercise, but do it very carefully and slowly. After the first workout, you will notice that strength exercises are easier, and it is easier for you to follow the correct technique. If you have had problems with the work of large muscles, activating exercises will improve your performance after a few sessions.