How to WARM UP and STAY INJURY FREE - Calisthenics

Today I’m in a different gym, I’m here to meet an old friend, Fabio.

In this video we are going to show you how to warm up for a calisthenics/gymnastic workout.

Hey Andrea, how are you?

Hey guys, welcome, as Andrea already said, we will talk about warm up exercises today.

We are going to simulate everything like a “lesson”, so I’m going to follow Fabio instructions for this video.

So you can try the exercises with us and see if you like the method.

Warm up is important for the nervous system, not only for the body!

So, it’s very important to prepare the mind, also to be able to understand if your body is ready for the daily session.

Before the dynamic warm up let’s start with joints circle.

Calf Raises + Calf Raise Hold. We start to feel the body and our ankles.

Now we are going to put some pressure on the ankles.

Now circles of the knees. Very slowly.

Abs compression and then we activate all the back muscles.

Let’s see the posterior pelvic tilt now.

Relax

Great!

Jumping jacks.

Do this for 30 seconds or 1 minute.

Andrea: I do usually start like this, and then I do the full motion.

This is great, so we can also warm up the shoulders.

Great, let’s change a little the angle of the work.

If you do this exercises on a soft ground, then you can do without shoes.

But if the ground is hard, you should wear some gymnastic shoes.

Some light running. Very good.

Now back skips for the flexor of the legs.

Some squats.

We are doing fast reps since we are just working with our own bodyweight.

Obviously we are going to cut a little bit of the clips.

Let’s start with the shoulders joints.

Open and close the hands very quick.

Now circles with straight arms.

We are going to do the same with our hands palms facing the ceiling.

Now rotations for the rotator cuff, this is very important for the type of workout we usually do.

Later we will talk more about the rotator cuff.

After the rotations, we do some circles.

Same with straight arms.

Full range of motion.

With straddle legs, we are going to put some weight on 1 leg first, then to the other one.

Not too much weight, just a little.

The heel of the bent leg must be on the ground!

Hold the position.

After the joints warm up, we will talk about the muscular warm up.

We will warm up the muscles by using every calisthenics tool.

Hold with straight legs and palms on the ground.

Let’s see how the wrists are feeling, put a little bit of weight with different angles.

Now close a little bit the legs and put more weight on the arms/shoulders.

5 reps.

Andrea is already doing it with feet detached from the ground, this is the final goal.

Andrea: Put slowly more weight on the shoulders/arms after every repetition.

The more you lean, more the pressure on the arms. (And less weight on your feet)

Bent over circles now. Same as before.

Now some presses with hands on the ground. Hold for a couple of seconds and repeat.

Very good.

Now straight arms plank shrugs.

Posterior pelvic tilt, squeeze the gluteus, squeeze the abs and do some shrugs.

10-12 reps.

Now with protracted scapulas we lean forward.

1…2…3…

hold.

Elbow plank.

Every position must be hold for 10-15 seconds at least.

Now, arch body a.k.a superman.

Maybe Andrea can tell us why.

Andrea: Because you look like superman while you do it ahahah.

Now imagine to hold a bar and do some air pull ups.

1…repeat….

Now circles with bent arms.

1…2…3…

very good.

Now bent arms push up hold.

Lower. Keep the gluteus and abs activated.

Now a little higher.

Let’s straighten the arms.

Now, pike compressions. Legs completely straight.

This is very good for L-sit, V-sit, Manna exercises.

Now hold the position.

My advice is to do a little bit of exercise on every calisthenics tool that you will use during the workout.

Sorry to interrupt you, but I do really care about saying that this video is just to get an idea of the exercises that you can do while warming up.

There are plenty of other exercises that you can also do.

Obviously this is just a summary of the immense amount of exercises that exists.

Now a core exercise.

The more you lean back, the harder you have to squeeze the gluteus and abs.

Now let’s do the same in a plank/planche lean position.

We are going to do a similar exercise while hanging too.

Your abs will work to stabilize the body, and also the lats are important. (A little bit like a front lever activation)

Now the same on the opposite side. This is very important for pull ups.

Activate the scapulas and the gluteus-femoris compartment.

Then, at the bar…with a very wide grip, activate one side per time.

1…2…

1…2…

This is a great exercise for the human flag too.

Now some shrugs on the bar.

We can also add a pull up hold.

10 seconds + slow eccentric.

Very good.

Now, parallels, right?

We are going to do the same on parallels, shrugs and then isometric hold with straight arms.

You can do the same on rings (if you already are used to calisthenics/gymnastic exercises)

The rings exercises requires a totally different activation from the parallels exercises.

Because you have to stabilize the body AND also the rings.

Andrea: It’s important to support the triceps with your lats. Also to extra-rotate the hands.

This is a good observation, while on rings, you must close the arms to the body, and it requires the activation of the lats.

Andrea: Otherwise the rings will go away from the body.

Yes, the sensation is to lay the triceps on the lats

Andrea: Now, thinking about the people who are watching us, should we talk about specific exercises for handstand/handstand push up warm up? And front lever?

Regarding the handstand we already showed the pike presses on the ground, another good exercise is the elevated pike hold.

Andrea: Every support is okay.

Great, very good.

Please note the shoulder mobility of Andrea. If you don’t have a good shoulder mobility, this exercises can be disastrous.

Andrea: I would stay like this.

If you don’t have a good shoulder mobility you will suffer on your shoulder joints and muscles!

Mobility is important. Speaking about shoulders, let’s talk about a great warm up exercise for the rotator cuff.

All you need is a 1kg weight (2.2lbs). Extra rotations laying on the ground. Elbows on the side of your body.

Andrea: Support the elbow by laying it on the side of your body.

Fabio: If you raise the elbow, you put pressure on your deltoid. But this exercise is for the rotator cuff! Not the deltoid.

So the elbow must rest on the side of the body.

30 seconds of controlled repetitions per each side. Very important before a pull or push session.

The rotator cuff is involved in almost every calisthenics/gymnastic exercise.

Now, let’s see 1 exercise for the front lever.

Tucked legs, raise the body until you touch the bar with your toes.

Then do a slow eccentric repetition.

If this exercise is easy, you can add an hold between each repetition.

Raise + Front Lever hold,

Press

Eccentric + Front Lever hold,

And now finish with the eccentric.

This is a specific warm up movement for front lever.

Even if you have only 3-4 seconds of tucked front lever, is important to do it.

Remember that injuries are always around the corner with this type of workout.

Andrea: I think that’s all for today.

Fabio: Yes, obviously we can’t show all the exercises and methods about warming up, it requires too much time.

As always, we just give you an hint.

Keep follow Andrea Larosa’s channel for more similar videos.

Just leave a comment below if you have any question.

Andrea: So if we have some free time we can reply.

Please, press the “Like” and “share” buttons if you enjoyed the video.

As we already said, we just gave you an hint about warming up, everything can be different from person to person, it all depends by your athletic level.

Visit www.andrealarosa.fit for my workout programs, great if you are a calisthenics beginner.

See you soon.