Do you warm up before your workouts? Well, you should, because as you know warming up improves the performance in your workouts and may avoid many injuries. That is why in this post we will show you how to warm up using resistance workout bands. This warm up is for the Upper Body.
This set of exercises take between 10 and 15 minutes and are perfect for you Bodyweight and Statics Workouts.
The only material that we need is a pair of elastic bands and a bar where tighten them. Those bands cannot be too tough because as a warm up we don’t need lot of resistance.
Let’s jump right into it!
We will tighten the elastic bands to the bar in approximately the hips height.
The first exercise we will perform is the wide shoulder press (maltese planche press). You should perform between 10 and 12 repetitions and hold in maltese position for few seconds at the end. A leg can be brought forward to increase stability if needed. It’s important to have a good scapular position (protraction) and tighten core, as seen in the video(s).
The second element to perform is the same as before but in backwards position (example in the video). We can call it Victorian press (referring to the Victorian movement). The number of repetitions for this exercise are 15 and a 5′ isometric hold at the end of those repetitions. Remember to maintain the proper scapula position and the core tightness. You should grip the bands using ‘false grip’.
For this exercise we need to tighten the bands higher in order to have the resistance in a proper direction (As seen in the video).
Side pulls will be our next exercise in order to focus on the pectoral. As it is a very important muscle in pull exercises and front planches it needs to have a special attention. We will perform between 20 and 30 contractions with each arm.
For the following exercises we will move the bands back down to the hips height.
Next we will perform side-upper pushes (as seen in the video). We will go for 12 and 15 repetitions with each arm. Try to maintain same body position along the hole execution and avoid rotation. You can regulate separation to the bar in order to modify the resistance.
Now let’s talk about a very important exercise for Calisthenics athletes: the inner rotors work. In Calisthenics we have lots of exercises where we hide our chest in order to increase our performance (the most common is in the planche exercises). That leads to inner shoulder rotation and bad position of the back. Strengthening inner rotors helps compensating for all these planche exercises and shoulder rotation. You should perform 12 to 15 repetitions with each arm. Try to focus on your arm position: the elbow cannot separate too much from the body and needs to be stable. You may consider using a softer band for this exercise. Watch the technique in the video carefully.
C’mon! Just two more left! With the elastic bands tighten at the hips height.
Now we will simulate handstand press. We can bring a leg forward in order to increase stability. Make sure to have the proper scapula protraction and perform the movement properly (as seen in the video). Perform between 10 to 12 repetitions.
Good. Let’s go for the last one. Now we need to step with one foot in each rubber band.
For the last exercise we will bring our arms from the side of our boy up to handstand position. We need to bring them outwards as seen in the video. Perform 8 to 10 repetitions and an isometric hold from 5 to 10 seconds. Depending on the bands resistance you should consider using a softer one.
We are done! It’s important to have in mind that that warm up should be complemented with some arms rotation and more specific progressions depending on the workout to perform.