Do you ever wonder why you do what you do? More specifically, why every workout follows a consistent pattern?
I will answer why we warm up every session and why every session has a similar flow to it. There is a reason for it.
Today I will break down the four main phases of a great workout.
Reset
The first thing we do when working out is to warm up. Well, you would think that but no, the first thing you should do is reset.
I am cutting hairs here because our reset phase is part of our warm-up. That is why we foam roll and start with a breathing drill (like the Child’s Pose or Cat Camel).
Life is full of stressors and stress leaves us feeling tight. When we are tight, we are out of alignment, and when we are out of alignment, injuries seem to pop their heads a little more frequently into our lives than we would like.
Relaxing is primarily accomplished by turning off your fight or flight response and getting you closer to a relaxed state. Foam rolling and breathing help us to relax tight muscles.
Relaxing is accomplished by warming up the muscles and getting good blood flow and stimulation to the muscles (foam rolling). By performing slow, long exhales, which is a relaxing response and tells the body it is ok to let go of tension.
Restore
After we have turned down the nervous system (fight or flight), we move into the restore phase, which activates movement patterns. The first time you do an exercise should not be with a heavy load but with bodyweight or a light load.
The restore phase is the time to see how movements feel and how the body responds to, say, squatting and hinging patterns or even how the shoulders and upper body feel. If you feel discomfort when performing a movement in the warm-up, it is a good sign to let your coach know so we can work around a pattern of movement that is not feeling great that day.
Resistance
The resistance phase is where you will use weight to push your body or cardio to push your heart and lungs. The sole purpose of this phase is to add just enough good stress to the body that it creates adaptation, and you become stronger because of it.
The resistance phase is what we think about when working out, but if we jump to this phase instead of doing phases one and two first, a few things can happen.
- You are not in good alignment and end up strengthening a dysfunctional movement pattern.
- You are tight and do not take the time to relax and warm up and pull something.
- You spun the wheel of fate, and it landed on “nothing terrible will happen today.”
Recovery
The recovery phase is referred to as the cool down. This phase is often skipped, and when we finish our workout, we leave and go on our merry way.
Suppose you think back to the first phase. We come into the gym with the stressors of life. We want to tone them down to safely workout and create adaptation because we can’t efficiently adapt in a stressed state.
The recovery phase is going through a breathing drill or light foam rolling, allowing your heart rate to come down. You just lifted weight and ran and threw a ball into the ground aggressively. You better believe your flight or fight response is activated after a great workout.
If you walk out in this jacked-up state, you will not recover as well as if you took the time to spend a few minutes breathing and relaxing, triggering your body to start the recovery process sooner.
Follow these four phases, and you will feel better, move better, and get better results.
