VIDEO: How To Warm-Up For Squatting

Here’s an example of a fantastic pre-squat warm-up routine. Each individual’s needs will be different, so feel free to pick and choose from this example, and to add in drills that work well for you. But this is a terrific starting point.

The more demanding an exercise or workout is, the more important it is to warm-up and prep for it. What counts as demanding? Anything with high loads, high speeds and/or situations where the exercises you’re doing will take you near the end range of motion. Heavy squats aren’t done at very high speeds, but they absolutely tick off the other two boxes.

The first goal of this warm-up is to increase blood circulation and body temperature, especially in the legs. 

From there we want to loosen up and ensure that we have good range of motion in the bottom of the squat. If you come into the gym after traveling, being off from the gym, or after a particularly hard workout that’s left you sore, you might need to spend extra time on this area. You never want to struggle getting into the basic positions you’re going to be training. So if a bodyweight squat feels still and crusty, keep warming-up until is doesn’t rather than taking a short cut and adding weight to a compromised movement pattern.

Finally, this warm-up will help activate the right muscles and wake-up your nervous system a little. This makes it easier for your body to perform the squat with good stability and symmetry.

So there you go. I hope this gives you some ideas for effective squat warm-ups and also for pre-workout movement prep in general.

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