The Warm-Up Is the Thing

Sun-Warmed Reflections: Hahns Peak and Pearl Lake - June, 2025

​I used to think warming up before any athletic endeavor was an optional nicety if time allowed. In my twenties, my boyfriend would stretch his ski legs before hopping in the lift line, and I thought, “how novel!” When I watched other runners warming up at marathon start lines, I thought, “I’m about to run 26.2 miles, surely I will warm up along the way?”  When I ran weekly with my store manager (I worked for a sporting goods store in California before moving to Steamboat), we always had to schedule our start around his hot tub time. He told me he couldn’t head out on a run if he didn’t get everything warmed up before-hand. I thought he was a bit of a princess.

Now at 58, I know that the warm up is not novel, not optional and I am certainly not a princess. 

Moving first thing in the morning by way of a brief but thorough warm-up not only prepares me for exercise, but gives my body and brain the foundation for a good day. The variety of movements that get my legs and upper body moving and encourage circulation help not only warm my muscles in preparation for my run, but specific things like ankle circles, body weight squats and upper body figure-8s help my joints (specifically my ankles, knees, hips, shoulders and spine) move more smoothly. The increased breathing and heart rate prepare my heart and lungs for the work to follow, and the increased oxygen to my head dissipates some of the early-AM brain fog. Even if I’m heading out for a walk, or just getting right into my day, the warm-up is valuable. I’d like my body and brain on-line no matter what.

That ease into the day or exercise warm-up is key. But I’ve recently experienced a next-level warm-up that kicks my bum.

I do a weight work-out at Old Town Hot Springs twice weekly. For the past seven months I’ve sweated my way through lifting heavy (6-8 reps max per set). Results? My glutes are no longer in hiding and I can lift heavier weights than when I started. But my running hasn’t changed an iota. As I’ve written before (Salida Trail Marathon Epilogue: A Run Through Time), despite the lifting, my running is less “moving swiftly” and more concrete legs dragging a heavy load up a steep mountain. It isn’t just strength I need - and strength is defined as the ability to exert force against resistance. I need power too. Power is defined as the ability to exert force quickly, as in explosiveness. My daughter, running circles around my straight line shuffle, has power. I do not. That’s why it feels like I’m dragging an anchor the size of the Queen Mary around. I can drag it (strength) but not quickly (power). 

To that end, I decided to take a class right after my lifting session. PowerFit - the perfect choice. I showed up for my first class, and we started with the “warm-up.” Skipping (forward, backward), high knees, kick bum, side-steps, twisting lunges, etc., etc. By the time we were done I was ready to lie down on the floor for the rest of class. Unfortunately, the instructor wanted us to do more than just warm-up and nap. We did rounds of hamstring curls, lunges, single-arm rows, and a few other things my brain prefers to forget. Then we did broad jumps. I had to check my shoes - why were they stuck to the floor? It seemed I could not actually get my body off the ground. This girl had no hops. The instructor discreetly suggested I do another round of high knees instead. Then, after class, he kindly suggested a dynamic warm-up I could do on my own, incorporating several of the exercises we did in class. If I did this dynamic warm-up consistently, it should help. Several weeks later, this warm-up is still challenging, but I can see incremental improvement. And, last week, I was able to do the broad jumps!

The warm-up has become not just a way to prepare, but a way to improve. According to the instructor, power is one of the first things to go as we age. I wasn’t doing wrong by focusing on strength training, but I needed to add in training for power as well. Dynamic, quick bursts of movement such as what I get with that challenging warm-up will help balance the strength gains with more explosiveness. Although I’m still a ways out from being explosive.

My goal is to be both stronger and more powerful. Will this get me up the hill any faster? Not tomorrow. Not next month. I’m probably looking at a year from now. That might seem like a long time to see results. But think about it. I haven’t been working that dynamic power system consistently for decades. And, especially in the last decade, that system hasn’t just been waiting for me to pick back up and be right where I was in my twenties. That system has been declining. So training for power will begin to stop that decline, and even make some modest gains. Of course I will still have dreams of being able to keep my daughter in sight on a run, though the truth is I may never do that again. More important than realizing that dream is that I can still improve. I can get stronger, and maybe a little quicker. And that improvement, even just the possibility of it, is worth warming up for.